


Little White Lies

by mommywrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Final Battle, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Post Season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 82
Words: 225,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22884142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mommywrites/pseuds/mommywrites
Summary: A new girl joins the class at the beginning of the school year, vulnerable, with secrets to hide, new and lonely, mysterious and exciting, with her own demons, lies, responsibilities and dreams. With plenty on their plates, how will Marinette and Adrien react to her, as well as the rest of the class and their friends.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi
Comments: 203
Kudos: 102





	1. This is Hannah

**Author's Note:**

> It will take several chapters to get introduced to Hannah more thoroughly and even more for Marinette to discover all her secrets. The plot is developed and finishes with exposing lies (the story should be about 30 chapters +-5) and most of it is already drafted (unless more inspiration for more complications strikes me).  
> The new girl character and the basic plot got created the day I saw Chameleon, but the plot is set after the ending of season 3 finale with all the complications.

This is Hannah

That morning, on the first day of the beginning of the new school year, Hannah stood before the stairs leading to the main gates of her new school. She knew she was almost late for her first class. She took her brothers to their school that morning and ran over to her school after that. She inhaled deeply and entered. She went straight to the principal Damocles. She already met him once, last week when she got her books. The man was funny, but she seldom understood what he was saying.

She clutched her phone. It was old, used one, given to her by some charity. But it supported various translation tools and that was all that she wanted from a phone.

“You will join Ms Bustier’s class.” Hannah understood from principal Damocles as they walked along a corridor. The man knocked on the door.

“Hannah Prc is here.” Principal Damocles announced her as they both entered the classroom. The man bravely tried and failed to pronounce her family name. Even her first name was too difficult as the French never pronounced the ‘h’ in the beginning.

The teacher there, very nice red haired woman in a nice light blue suit was interrupted while she was taking attendance.

“Welcome, Hannah!” The teacher greeted with a wide smile and gentle voice. She knew better than to try and pronounce names that consisted of no vowels.

“Welcome Hannah” The rest of the class greeted. It sounded more like Anna to her, but she accepted it.

The teacher introduced her briefly, only as a transfer student, Hannah was grateful that her legal status was not discussed. Then everyone said their names in a roll call. There was no way for her to memorize all of them.

Chloe in the first row said she was the mayor’s daughter. The girl next to her was Sabrina. She struggled to remember the other names.

The teacher offered her to find a place to sit. There was a place in the third row, next to a large boy named Ivan. She smiled to all the students and climbed to the spot.

“Is it free?” She asked. She was proud she could speak at least so much French. The boy nodded, but was rather surprised she asked for that spot. She took the empty space and took out a notebook. It was the same notebook she got from a charity and used to train her French, she made a list of phrases there and different useful notes. It was light blue with a huge logo of the charity on the front page. She got her books for the school a week ago and she tried to read (and translate) at least the first lesson. It was easy for any of the sciences. She just had to learn the French terminology used in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, it was not much different from her own language or English that she preferred as her foreign language, and she already knew much of those. Even geography was easy.

But history was much harder. She examined the French grammar and tried desperately to memorize the rules. She spent hours reading out loud the one literature book she had, and it was a children’s book, nothing suitable for a class she just joined. She could read books in the community centre, but not borrow them home, and she could not read out loud there.

The teacher was talking and talking and talking. Hannah tried to understand. But French spoke differently, as if they ignored individual words, they always pronounced them as groups. It was hard to follow. Hannah kept the book opened on the first lesson and hoped to be able to follow. But there was no recognition.

She drew a map of the classroom and wrote down the names of different students, as much as she could remember. The boy next to her was named Ivan. The girl in front of her was Marinette. She could see that on the cover of her notebook. The girl in front of Ivan was Alya. She spied most of the names and verified her little chart.

Finally, the teacher asked the students to open their books and she began to teach. But she was talking and talking and the students were taking notes. Hannah tried to take notes. When teacher spoke slowly, she was able to catch the words phonetically, but without the right spelling. Well she knew she needed a temporary notebook and a real one where she would copy everything once she went home.

The place she called home was a different issue.

Marinette was running to the school that morning. The first day of school year. The summer break was gone. She spent her holidays between the bakery, her designs, Liberty and the Kitty Section, and Luka. She wanted to move on from Adrien, she didn’t. She tried. Adrien was with Kagami now, although she knew the girl was in Japan for the holidays. She did not look for the boy, but his face was everywhere. And the lonely boy joined for any activity that his classmates had during the summer. So Marinette did not forget about her crush, if anything, it got worse, because she cared about the boy and she could see he was hurting and lonely and craved company. Chloe spent her holidays with her mother in New York as well as some other fancy places. Lila was absent during the summer. Marinette did not care where she was.

The akuma attacks did not stop during the summer, if anything, there was more of them, as if Hawk Moth had holidays and more time to engage new akuma in his repertoire. There were various tourists who could be distressed for various reasons and become akumatized, but they were also not aware of the dangers of the akuma. There was heat, there were storms, the natural ones, not the Stormy Weather type, and there was traffic, busy summer indeed. Chat wanted patrols so she let him, she knew he sometimes jumped around the city alone in evenings.

The raven haired girl barely entered the classroom when the bell rang. She greeted the teacher and her classmates with a smile and ran over to her place and Ms Bustier just started to take attendance when principal Damocles entered the classroom and introduced a new girl. This new girl, Hannah, was shorter than Alix, with open brown eyes and long brown hair tied up in a messy pony tail. She was dressed in jeans, white sneakers, an unbuttoned shirt in red and white and a black t-shirt with some old band doodle on it.

Hannah’s brown eyes scanned the teachers and all the students one by one. She looked Marinette straight in the eyes. There was something in her eyes, as if the girl was forty and not fourteen or fifteen as the rest of the class. But her smile was more fitting to a young child, not a teenager. The class introduced themselves. The girl simply nodded in response and smiled with an occasional merci. When she was offered to find a place to sit, she climbed up with a smile and bravely asked Ivan if the seat was free. Marinette noticed Lila glared at the new girl briefly while she was taking the place behind Marinette.

Marinette wondered what kind of a girl was Hannah. The rest of the class could not hide their interest in the new girl, but right now they had to be silent because Ms Bustier started her review of the history lessons. Was this girl an attention seeker, just like Lila? The girl did not look that way, she did not ask for attention even when she was standing before the class. She was giving attention, to each student as they introduced themselves.

Alya gave Marinette and the new girl a studying look and Marinette noticed that. Well, Alya often criticised her best friend about not being open to the new students, (all things considered, her treatment of Adrien and her reaction to Lila’s lies, but Alya forgot she was a new student too) perhaps she could just demonstrate that that was not true with this new girl.

Adrien felt as if this summer lasted forever. There was no school. But that did not mean that his father did not fill up his schedule with Chinese, piano and modelling. In fact he had so many photo shoots that he spent more time under the artificial light of a studio than in the actual sun outside. Even when he had a photo shoot outside, it was usually in the early morning, the photos were taken during sunrise and he was back in the Agreste mansion for breakfast. Not that he saw his father at any meal, or most of them.

He still had fencing lessons, but private, with only a handful of his usual opponents. And Kagami was not there. He missed her at fencing. He missed her company. But he remembered rather vividly how he was relieved when she told him she would be away for a month. Because she wanted a relationship. And he was not sure what he wanted. Well, first and foremost, he knew who he wanted. He wanted Ladybug.

He enjoyed the akuma fights so much he felt guilty for it. Because then he saw his lady. They would exchange banter and a few words here and there. He tried to engage them in patrols and she reluctantly agreed, but only once per week. And even those were often interrupted by an akuma or even some other emergency. So he patrolled on his own, some nights he would pass by Marinette’s rooftop terrace and a few times that he spotted her there alone, he would drop by. His classmate was somewhat melancholic at times and Adrien wondered why, but she never let him know the reason.

The boy managed to get some free time to spend time with his friends, on Liberty with the Kitty Section, in the park or elsewhere. Marinette and Nino regularly sent him the information on when and where was the next meet up. And he did his best to be there. But there were gatherings where he was not allowed to participate, late evening gatherings in the park when the heat subsided were out of the question because he had a photo shoot at dawn, sleepover parties and gaming marathons organised by Nino, Max and Kim were dismissed by Nathalie instantly. Some evenings he was so lonely he resorted to exchanging messages with Chloe. He was never so desperate to reply to anything Lila wrote, he seldom bothered to read that.

Adrien was looking forward to the first day of school and to resume at least that activity. Kagami was expected to return during the week. He was definitely happy she was coming back. But he was not sure why. He liked the girl, he was certain of that, but he also liked Marinette, so he knew he liked both of them as friends. He loved Ladybug, he knew he did. Sometimes, he had a feeling she reciprocated his feeling, there was that glimmer in her eyes, there was that smile, but then her expression would change and she would mutter something in the spirit of ‘We can’t be together Chaton.’ Her voice was almost sad and she did not mention another boy nor told him she did not love him. So, until he knew why they can’t be together (because we are superheroes was a lame excuse and they both knew it) the boy did not want to give up and move on, he just couldn’t, it was too hard, because there was that option that he was breaking two hearts not just one.

When principal Damocles brought a new girl to the class, Adrien smiled widely. The girl, Hannah, looked happy and excited. Her warm brown eyes pierced straight through him, but he could also see so much in there, she was like an open book, but written in a language and logic he could not comprehend on such a short notice. Well, he was homeschooled, he did not expect to know everything about the girl from just one minute of exchanging names with the class.

The rest of the class was mostly excited about having a new classmate. A new person in their classroom. How did she get there? What was her story? Kim instantly commented on her short height and teased Alix who shot something back. Nathaniel was already sketching her, just like he did with most of his classmates and teachers, and practically anybody. Chloe pretended to be indifferent (perhaps she actually was).

Lila was not happy. She just spent the time before school telling fairy tales about how she spent her holidays only for this tiny girl to grab their attention just because she was new? Oh no, she was going to get their attention, she had a story to tell for each break they had, she was going to get that new girl’s attention, Hannah was about to become one of her devoted servants just like anybody else.


	2. What is Your Name?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little more about Hannah and her first conversation with Marinette and Adrien during the first short break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go with the second one already :)

What is your name?

_Hannah was excited. It was the beginning of a new school year. She was going to start school, new school, actual school after years of intermittent education, most of the things she learned, she learned by herself, her and the book, alone, no teacher in between. She even taught her two younger brothers, not that they were much younger, all three of them born in the span of three years. But it was hard to be a teacher to her own brothers. On the other hand, the task made her focused on her own education, not any of the other problems she had, and she had a lot._

_The last time she went to more or less regular school was years ago. But even that was improvised in a damaged building with ad hoc teachers who sometimes appeared and sometimes not. A war broke out in her country few years ago. There was no school, no classes to go to. The teachers tried and mostly failed to teach in the sanctuaries. But the teachers escaped, or stopped coming, for one reason or another, one by one. So she learned from the books, at least she had books. Learning was something to put her mind away from the bombings, from the imminent danger. From hunger. From absence of any sanitation. She was reading anything, literature, science, any book was good, save religion, she was not reading that. She had enough of that._

_Her parents were medical doctors, they used to work in a local hospital, then they worked in a rubble of a local hospital, then they worked in various basements that were converted into hospitals. Sometimes she helped, she measured temperature, she cleaned up the work space, then she cleaned up the wounds. She always knew where her parents were, they always told her. Her only, not her brothers, it was her job to know. Because they might not come back. Because they could have got hit at any day._

_Hannah was expelled from her town when the other side finally won that tiny peace of territory. Her parents, her brothers and her. She was not yet a teenager and dressed in boy’s clothes and hid her long hair under a cap, she put some dirt over her face. Because everyone knew how the girls were treated by the conquering armies. She was short, maybe even stunted growth, she was wearing boy’s clothes most of her life and she assumed the manners of her brothers easily._

_They were distributed and redistributed for months until she reached Paris. The fact that her parents had medical degrees helped a lot, the fact that none of the kids spoke French was rather quickly discarded. Her father was quick to learn, so he got a medical job in a hospital in Paris. It was temporary until he could apply for an exam so his career as a surgeon could continue. And he needed money to take that exam. The same was valid for her mother, save she actually volunteered to get the experience and perhaps a job after the exam._

_Hannah and her two brothers took exams that were required before they could enter school. They excelled science, their scores and the level of knowledge far exceeded what was expected from the students their age. Her level of English was considered excellent. History and literature were satisfactory. She failed French language entry level for high school. But, against all odds, she was allowed to attend College Francois Dupont with students one to two years older than her. Her brothers were in elementary school in appropriate grades._

The first school period for Hannah was a blur. The teacher was speaking, she recognized individual words and sometimes parts of sentences. She understood the teacher was explaining the school rules before she resumed teaching, or actually, repeating briefly the history that was taught the year before. Hannah regretted she could not understand, that would have been an excellent opportunity for her. She recorded the sound on her phone with an intention to listen to it again in the evening. Other classmates would glance her way during the period, she smiled back and concentrated on the teacher. She hoped they would not all jump onto her with questions. She exercised her speech for the principal and planned to use the same to introduce herself to her classmates.

The first break was interesting. The teacher announced they are having a break and simply went to fetch some materials before they continue with history for the next school period. The class started chatting. The brown haired girl in the back row started to tell some story and everyone listened in awe. Hannah ignored it as she could not really understand what was it about. Everyone else gathered around to listen. Well everyone save the girl just in front of her and the blonde boy in the first row. The girl in front of her stood up and turned around.

“Hi, I am the student’s representative. Please let me know if you need anything.” The girl spoke with a smile. Hannah stared at the girl, nice girl, wide smile, deep blue eyes. Hannah liked her, perhaps she could make a friend in the school. She wanted friends, she lost so many.

“I am sorry. Could you repeat that. Slowly. Please?” Hannah asked while she made herself even smaller.

“My name is Marinette Dupain Cheng.” The girl spoke slowly. Hannah looked at her table with names and checked the name and the surname she copied. Marinette observed the map of the classroom that Hanna sketched and filled it with names and smiled back.

“Nice to meet you Marinette Dupain Cheng. I am Hannah.” Hannah replied and offered her hand. Marinette stared at the offered hand for a moment confused by the action, but then she returned her own hand and they exchanged a handshake.

“I am the class president.” The blue eyed girl announced slowly and quietly not to disturb the girl who was telling stories in the last row. The blonde boy from the first row turned around and peeked towards her. He was listening to their conversation, obviously.

Hannah nodded, “Class president, I understand.” She replied as clearly as she could. She knew her accent was off, she hoped it was not too bad. Marinette noticed, but she produced no reaction.

“You need help?” Marinette asked with a wide smile and determined blue eyes.

“Um yes?” Hannah replied with a surprised smile. Does she need help? Yes she does. But for the life of her she was supposed to ask for that help in French, the language she now understood on written level. But understanding spoken French in a high school was something completely different. Hannah nodded and smiled back sheepishly.

“Do you need something?” The blue eyed girl asked quietly.

Hannah observed the girl carefully. Then she nodded again and took out her notebook with phrases.

“I need a few books from the library.” She produced a list of about twenty items. Most of them were about how to learn French language. “It is my first day of school.” She added another phrase she memorised. The blonde boy was now standing beside Marinette.

The other students barely glanced towards them, they were listening to the next tall tale by Lila who dragged the group away. She tried to get Adrien to follow but the boy just waved her away.

“I can help you with the library. That is okay.” Marinette smiled.

Hannah smiled back.

The boy smiled too. “Hi Hannah.” He said with a grin.

“What is your name?” Hanna asked Adrien the question in practised French. It was nothing like the way common French students would talk. It was clear she was talking in a language that was foreign to her. Both Adrien and Marinette could recognize that.

Marinette flipped her eyes between Hannah and Adrien and wandered what was going to happen next. She refused to be jealous for the attention that Adrien was giving this new girl, he was not hers, he loved someone else and he was with Kagami.

“What is your name?” Hannah repeated slowly, one word at a time so she was sure she pronounced them correctly. She hoped she did not mess it up completely the first time. She smiled and looked expectant, she held her pencil ready to write it down on her chart.

Then Adrien started to laugh. Marinette could not help herself but smile. It was the same genuine laughter as that day he gave his umbrella to Marinette. Hannah looked down to her notebook with phrases. She stared at the question. Did she just asked something stupid instead what she intended.

“Um, sorry, what is your name?” She asked the boy again as soon as he stopped laughing. But he started to laugh again. Hannah was desperate. She could not understand what she did wrong. She just asked her classmate for a name. Perhaps it was wrong because he was a boy?

“It is okay, you said it correctly.” Marinette nodded to the girl. She enjoyed Adrien’s laughter so much that she laughed along, but she noticed that Hannah was distressed by it. She could not remove the wide happy smile from her face, Adrien was happy.

“I’m sorry.” Adrien wheezed between laughs. “I do not remember anyone ever asked me that for real.” The boy was genuinely surprised by the question. People were screaming his name after him in the streets, he could barely have a walk in the park with his friends without being recognized, and yet, this girl just asked him his name. It was so normal and yet so new to him.

Hannah was confused. She did not understand why this boy was laughing at her. She felt hurt. Was it her accent? She knew she had poor accent. That is why she practised. It was not like a practise with a trained speaker or a tutor. She listened to the news and tried to repeat the words and sentences the way they spoke. The problem was they always spoke so quickly, so she played them on her phone part by part and practised. Apparently she got this question totally wrong because this boy was laughing at her.

Adrien looked down and stared at her phrases in her notebook. She knew it was a bad idea to aim as high as she did and go to high school, but she could not have said no once she saw the opportunity. She wanted to go to the best school and her points from the science exam ensured her the position. Everyone advised her against her choice. Because her French was so poor, it was better to go to the same class with students her own age and just learn French. But that was not what she wanted.

Her plan backfired, already on the first day, because this boy knew she was a fraud and knew that she could speak very little French and poorly, too little to go to a prestigious high school in the centre of Paris. Now she was going to be expelled on her first day and sad and angry and become one of those awful akuma beings that rampaged around the city.

Marinette noticed the girl was sad and worried.

“Don’t worry.” She waved her hands to get her attention. “Hannah. It is okay.” She continued. The foreign girl raised her eyes. “He is just surprised. That’s all.” Marinette did not know how exactly to fix this, but she saw the girl was spiralling down. All the emotions were straight on her face.

Hannah was not sure why would a boy be surprised just because she asked him his name. Then she remembered. There was a round call in the morning when everyone told their names and she was supposed to memorize, and she failed to do so, too many names in too short time span.

“I’m sorry.” Hannah apologized again. Apparently she was going to do that much these days. “You said your name, but I forgot. I’m sorry.” She bowed her head in shame. She could only hope to be accepted the way she was.

“Oh no.” Adrien finally realized that the girl in front of him was worried. “It is fine.” He smiled a wide lopsided grin. “My name is Adrien Agreste.” He finally said and smiled back. He enjoyed telling that to a person who did not know it already. It was a new experience.

“Nice to meet you Adrien Agreste.” Hannah offered her hand to the boy. Adrien was much faster to pick up the offered hand and shake it. He was used to meeting different people and attended many events where the introductions between people were followed by a formal handshake.

“The pleasure is all mine.” The boy replied with a wide grin. Hannah was confused. This boy was smiling at her so warmly, but he was laughing at her just moments ago. She understood the phrase he offered as a reply and knew he did not mock her so she smiled back. She checked her table. She wrote his name in the empty space.

Marinette might have been a little jealous and a little wary of a newcomer. But this new transfer student was nothing like Lila. She sat at her spot, she did not demand attention, she seemed withdrawn and unsure of herself. Perhaps it was her obvious poor knowledge of the language?

“Do you speak French?” The blonde boy asked quietly but clearly. Adrien learned a few languages before he started with Chinese, perhaps he could help the girl too. He remembered Marinette on his first day of school. He looked at the pigtailed girl and smiled gently at the memory.

“A little.” Hannah replied a bit scared what was going to happen. What if these students discover she actually failed French in her exam and then she would get kicked out of school on her first day? She could not have that, she worked so hard to be there.

“Do you know some other language?” He asked after that. The boy was quiet, as if he did not want the rest of the class to overhear. Hannah was glad, these two students were just trying to be nice to her. Hannah was not sure what the question was, but she had an idea of what it might be.

“I can speak English.” She replied the practised phrase. Nobody in Paris spoke her own language, save a few people in the community centre, she often tried to communicate in English, which was her second language, when thing were not working out for her in French (which was almost all the time in the beginning).

“Are you from UK?” Marinette asked with raised eyebrows. She knew many people moved across the channel as they followed their businesses and careers.

Hannah waved her head.

“She does not have that accent.” Adrien told Marinette. Hannah raised her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry about my accent.” Hannah apologized. Her insecurity was starting to overwhelm her.

“Don’t be.” The boy smiled. “It is interesting.”

“We can go to the library later.” Marinette offered and pointed to the list Hannah was holding.

The bell announced the end of the break before Marinette could tell her that the break was over, and the teacher returned with a pile of papers that were obviously, to all the students disappointment, worksheets to fill in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I skipped the legal procedures ...   
> Marinette is helping Hannah in the next chapter and Adrien is tagging along (mostly to avoid being dragged into something else).


	3. Language and Other Barriers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya is curious about the new girl, Hannah is struggling, there is an akuma attack and Marinette and Adrien try to come to terms with their feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They are starting to contemplate romance issues here.

Language and other barriers

“So what is the story with the new girl?” Alya inquired the moment she sat down. Nino looked at both Marinette and Adrien and expected an answer.

“She is new, I need to show her to the library.” Marinette shrugged. She did not share the fact that Hannah struggled with French mostly because she slightly resented that her friends gave so much attention to Lila. Besides, it might sound like gossip or criticism while she did not mean that.

“Oh, I hope it is not during the lunch break, Lila is showing us photos from her trip to Achu.” Alya whispered with sheer enthusiasm for the next story she could hear from the resident liar. Her eyes gleamed with excitement.

“Actually it is.” Marinette smiled apologetically. She was actually happy to avoid that experience.

“Dude, can you stay for the lunch break?” Nino asked Adrien.

“Actually, no I have to go to the mansion, otherwise I would help Marinette and the new student as I need to go to the library too.” The boy quickly thought of an excuse. Nino gave him an odd look, as if there was a book that the boy did not have already in his room or could get with a click of a mouse. But the teacher was there and was explaining what they were expected to do with the worksheets.

Nino and Alya were having a conversation about how the homework interfered with their afternoon plans when Adrien turned around to Marinette to pass her the worksheets.

“You are really amazing to help Hannah.” Adrien beamed.

Marinette blushed at the praise and almost dropped the papers when their fingers touched accidentally. She stammered a thank you and nodded to confirm he could join. The boy smiled gently and turned back to the teacher as Marinette was expected to pass the worksheets further.

Marinette decided to help the new girl. It was a useful distraction as she had less time to be annoyed by Lila and her stories. Besides, she decided to trust this new girl until proven otherwise.

The break was over and they resumed the history lesson. Hannah struggled to fetch the words, but now she was almost able to fetch complete sentences when the teacher was speaking slowly. The lesson was from the classic history and she recognized the Greek and the Roman rulers and leaders of the armies as well as the famous battles that were mentioned. She managed to follow through how far they got and she even marked what was for homework to read in the book and collected her worksheet that she planned to deal with with a help of dictionary, translate tools and all the books she could get.

The next class was literature. Hannah took a photo of the list of the books they were expected to read and analyse. She even recognized a few she read already, just not in French. Well, at least she knew the plot. Then the teacher explained how the book reports are expected to be submitted. Apparently there was an online tool to do that. And there was an elaborate system. It was completely different from what she was used to. She quickly opened the web page on her phone. The teacher confiscated her phone although she pointed to the web page she was reading was actually the book report sheet. But the teacher was not giving up. With her low experience in French, Hannah gave up. She noticed both Adrien and Marinette frowned at their teacher.

“I do not know what kind of practises you are used to, but we do not tolerate using your phone during classes.” The teacher scolded in gentle tone.

Hannah was lost. Without the translate engines she struggled to understand what was being said. She finally took the school tablet and tried to use the same translation engines, but some of them were blocked, she was not allowed to install an application and the only one she could use was the slowest she knew.

Finally, the lunch bell rang and Hannah was reunited with her phone.

“You treasure your phone even more than Alya.” Marinette smiled.

Hannah nodded. It was difficult to explain. This phone was her link to the outside world. She could learn, she could use it to translate, she used it to find the possibility for her family to settle together and in Paris. It was her phone that she used to fill in the forms for the whole family, to find the accommodation, to find this school, to find her way around this huge city. She truly treasured the device.

“Can you show me the way to the library, please?” Hannah asked the class president. It was one of the phrases she memorised and used before.

“Would you like to go to the cafeteria first?” Marinette asked.

Hannah waved her head. She had her small container with food, because she did not have the money for the cafeteria, or she did have some, but she wanted to spend it on something that was not food. So she packed a few leftovers from yesterday. Her brothers had the food in their school for free, and that was another reason why her parents wanted her in that school. But she knew she would never be away from her two little brothers, and she wanted to be away from them. She wanted to be on her own.

“Me neither.” Marinette smiled. Well, she was not going there because avoiding cafeteria meant avoiding Lila and her tall tales. So she preferred to go home for lunch during the days when Alya was particularly interested in the stories Lila was telling. Besides, Adrien always ate at home, so there was really no point in going to eat with the rest of the class.

Alya was ready to woo her seat mate to join her for the lunch once more, she missed her friend and school and hoped to catch up on everything.

“Sorry, I have to help the new student.” Marinette quickly excused herself from Alya and the rest of the Lila worshippers.

“Oh, perhaps I would struggle less with classes if she was so helpful to me.” Lila smirked. The opportunity to make Marinette look bad just presented itself.

But the girl in question was already walking away swiftly. Adrien heard the remark and glared at Lila before he walked away from the school.

Adrien walked towards the school entrance and the car that waited for him. He was well aware that his tactics towards Lila’s lies was wrong and he took the blow to get Marinette back to school. But the liar obviously never stopped to weave her web of lies against his friend and he had to find a way to put a stop to that. The problem was his father almost never let him spend his lunch breaks at school. Perhaps it was time to persuade Nathalie it was pointless to go to the mansion only to eat alone. If they want to control what he was eating, they might as well pack him his lunch to go. He even practised the speech in the car and got a grunt of approval from his driver on the way to the mansion.

Marinette decided to speak for Hannah as they entered the library. The librarian was explaining the rules, but she also pointed to the list of rules printed and hanged behind her back so it was possible for Hannah to follow what she was explained. The little brunette girl clutched to her list of books that she thought she needed. As if she could magically learn to speak French by reading more. She knew she needed to speak more, but that was always such an embarrassing experience.

“You can borrow only three books at a time.” The librarian frowned. “Four at most.”

Hannah nodded. She understood the rules. It was written on the wall behind the librarian. Marinette explained to the librarian they are going into the library to chose. The girls quickly collected all the books about learning the French language and put them on one desk. She also retrieved the history book from the previous school year.

“Thank you, Marinette. Go and have lunch. I will stay here and study.” Hannah stuttered out, the words were pronounced one by one and not the way French normally did, but Marinette just smiled and greeted before she left for the bakery.

Marinette walked out from the school with her head high. Apparently the boys chose to eat on the stairs in the sun and even Alya and Alix joined them. They were exchanging stories about how they spent their summers and Marinette was almost sorry to leave. Almost, because everyone compared their experiences to absolutely amazing accomplishments by Lila.

“I just wish they would all see how Lila is making them feel low.” Marinette muttered to Tikki who was listening from her purse. “They are all so accomplished and she makes them feel low and insignificant by making herself look important with her lies.”

“Be patient Marinette, everything will be better soon.” Tikki chirped from the open purse but remained hidden inside.

“I just hope it does not get worse in the meantime.” Marinette sighed.

Of course, there had to be an akuma attack. Adrien finished his meal quickly, ran away in his room and transformed. Marinette did not even reach her parents bakery, she merely hid in an alley and transformed. The akuma was not so demanding, but it still took them time and effort to win and their lunch break was almost finished when Ladybug and Chat Noir bumped their fists.

“Thank you Ladybug.” Chat Noir smiled gently as always, the breeze ruffled his blonde hair and he twirled his baton in his hand. He wanted to linger around, but his miraculous beeped and warned him that it was wiser to simply head home.

“Thank you Chaton.” Ladybug smiled gently, but her eyes looked sad. She still used her nicknames for him, but he stopped using the nicknames for her. They did not stop their usual banter, especially when they had time, and she loved it. She did not miss a pun or a declaration of love in the middle of an akuma battle, but she noticed he was somehow sad and lonely and she really wanted to just grab him and hug him and tell him he can banter and flirt and say whatever he want just to see him smile again. But she knew she shouldn’t. She could not love him, she knew after Chat Blanc that she should never fall in love with the boy in the catsuit. The only problem was, it was probably too late.

They separated and went their own winding routes.

Marinette thought about how now she loved two boys and could have none of them, she did not even fully let go of Adrien before she realized she had somehow fallen in love with Chat, although it was not the same romantic way, but she knew that she loved him as something more than just a friend. And yet, there was a third boy, Luka, who was obviously interested in her romantically, and she could not say that she did not feel anything for him, she did like him, but she had no way of telling just how much romance there was on her side. She liked to listen to him playing the guitar, it made her feel relaxed and forget about her duties and responsibilities. She liked the way she could relax and be herself around him, but she never wanted to be more, she never needed to be more, it was not a challenge. It was good, it was safe, it was the way she felt around her friends. She landed on her rooftop terrace and detransformed before she entered her room through the hatch rooftop window. She passed a cookie for Tikki and grabbed a piece of pastry on her way out through the bakery. The lunch break was about to finish.

Adrien vaulted towards the mansion in a long winding route as he wanted some time to think. Kagami was a bout to return from Japan in a day or two, but he was not even sure when exactly. He knew his feelings for Ladybug were still there, he still loved her, he merely stopped with the nicknames and the flirting. He secretly hoped that would make her miss it and realize she always had feeling for him, but that did not happen yet. Or maybe she did realize that, but was too stubborn to ever admit to that. He knew he liked Kagami, she had the appearance, she had the attitude and she liked him. He knew she did. And the boy felt as if he could be himself around her, at least when the two of them were alone. The problem was that when the two of them were alone, she wanted more, she wanted to kiss him, she wanted to be his girlfriend, and the boy was not ready for that just yet. He did not mind holding her hand, he did not mind brushing ice cream from her cheek, but kissing was too much. They went on friendly dates, they went around and about and joined his friends a few times but then she left for Japan with a not so subtle suggestion that he should not hesitate so much once she returns. And yet, he was not ready to do anything with her that she would not interpret as hesitation. He needed friends more than he needed girlfriends, he knew that now. And that was exactly what he planned to tell her.

Hannah checked her phone and decided to stay in the library during the akuma attack. She knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir were about to fight, win and then restore everything. If only someone could do that in her own country. The way she understood the magic behind, it was not the way it worked, but the girl could hope. Well, she knew what she was about to ask Ladybug and Chat Noir the first time she met them. She memorized those sentences by heart.

The alarm on Hannah’s phone notified her that the lunch break was about to be finished. She quickly returned most of the books, and left four, one for literature, one about learning French, the old history book and a simple book written for pre teen kids that might help her learn some French that she could actually use in school.

She took the books to her locker and took the sandwich. She ate in the locker room while other students entered and passed by. She knew she had science and then the gym class next. And it was a double period of science that day. She was used to having different sciences as separate subjects. This was new. She took the book and the notebook and her regular additions such as the phrasebook and the dictionary. She braced herself for the afternoon classes, she wanted to be ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things will go slightly better for Hannah in the next chapter.


	4. Things Get Physical

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More school stuff, like science class (physics in particular) and some fun in the gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just more school stuff and a friendly gesture from Marinette.

Things get physical

“Hi Ivan.” Hannah greeted as she put her books and notebooks on the desk and slid into the bench. They had science class in a normal classroom that afternoon. Ivan silently nodded in greeting while Mylenne let go of his hands. Hannah understood they must have been a couple from the way they acted. She was not used to that in school, she was just a child the last time she went to regular school. The girl stared at the couple, probably inappropriately, not that she knew what she was doing before she shook her head and finally spoke to the couple.

“Do you want to sit here?” The little brunette offered to Mylenne and smiled, but Mylenne shook her head and looked back towards Alix.

“Hi, I’m Mylenne, Ivan and me are a couple, but you can sit with him if you want, I’d rather sit with Alix.” The girl with colourful braids greeted.

“Mylenne.” Hannah smiled to the girl, she did not understand all the words. “And Alix?” she pointed to the pink haired girl to her side.

“Yes.” Mylenne confirmed quietly.

Hannah was making quick notes in her notebook.

“You are writing all our names here and where everyone sits?” Alix sneaked up to Hannah from behind and spoke so suddenly that the new girl was taken by surprise.

Hannah startled and the notebook fell to the floor. Alix picked it up, snatched the pencil and filled the table with the missing names and surnames.

“There you go, it must be hard to remember everybody just from one round call in the morning.” Alix snickered and turned around to slide in her seat.

Hannah checked her notebook and appreciated the effort, although she did not understand what Alix told her it sounded assuring. She was looking forward to the science class, it was her strongest subject, that and math. The science teacher looked stern her pointed nose and chin reminded her of the way witches used to be depicted in the books she used to read as a child, really, the only thing missing was a black cat and a pointed hat. Hannah almost laughed as she imagined the missing items on her science teacher.

Marinette and Adrien burst into the science classroom just moments before the bell rang. Hannah smiled to both of them. It was funny how both of them were out of breath, Marinette was much more red in her face and squeaked as Adrien run into her from behind because she stopped the moment she entered the classroom. The boy apologized and both of them went to their seats while Alya was snickering in her place and teased Marinette about it.

Ms Mendeleev started teaching and Hannah was happy. She understood this teacher very well. She had no issues in taking notes, and she even raised her hand when the teacher asked question. It was automatic. She did not even think about the fact that she would have to answer in French.

Marinette made herself pay attention to the teacher, they were repeating the lessons from the last year and the teacher was asking questions to the class continuously. She was surprised at the questions at first, but it was an easy repetition, she just had to remember the mass the velocity and the impulse.

Adrien was still in his own world, he contemplated the words he should say to Kagami. He did not want to dismiss her as his romantic interest (and the boy was a bit surprised by that) he only wanted more time and he had no idea how much time he needed.

Hannah was raising her hand, but the teacher asked Max to answer. Then she asked Adrien the next time. Then she asked Marinette. Hannah kept rising her hand for each question. She noticed Max was giving her an odd look. He was the only other one who raised his hand each time. The teacher spoke slowly and in familiar terms, Hannah finally felt she was not over her head in the school curriculum.

“The petite girl behind Marinette.” Ms Mendeleev finally called.

“It is you.” Marinette warned Hannah as she turned around towards her. Marinette was worried, she knew how Hannah was struggling with French and remembered rather clearly when her phone was taken just because she wanted to use some translation tools and access the school report pages.

Hannah got up. “The rate of change of speed is called acceleration.” She exclaimed proudly to the surprise of two of her classmates. She could speak French when the subject was her favourite subject. Hannah noticed how Marinette and Adrien smiled at her. Max raised an eyebrow. Of course, he was not so surprised that the girl knew the answer, she did raise her hand, but it was the way she said it, proud and happy, with an accent he could not place.

“And how do we compute it?” The teacher asked with raised eyebrows. Mme Mendeleev looked at Hannah, but anyone could have raised their hand and answered for her if the girl did not know.

Hannah knew somewhere in the back of her mind that she was expected to describe the procedure in words. But instead, she walked down to the blackboard, draw two small circles with different arrows and marked them as v1 and v2 and then wrote the formula and explained it. Mme Mendeleev was speechless. Not because a student knew the answer but because she came to the blackboard on her own.

“What is your name?” Mme Mendeleev studied her list of students and stopped at an unfamiliar name.

“My name is Hannah.” She spoke quietly.

“Mlle Hannah Prc” Mme Mendeleev pronounced her name and surname correctly and Hannah beamed. “Thank you very much for you illustrative answer. Please go back to your seat.” The teacher fortunately motioned with her hand so the girl understood what was expected of her.

“I am usually the one doing the teaching.” She commented as Hannah was returning to her spot. She smiled to her colleagues happy that she was able to show what she knew.

That was not the only time Hannah went to the blackboard to explain something, there were circular motions and gravitational forces to draw and Mme Mendeleev even draw a hint of a smile on her face as she watched the short girl try to use the upper portion of the blackboard.

After two school hours of repeating what they learned last year, Mme Mendeleev concluded they did not forget everything they learned and they were ready to start with the universal gas law for the next time.

The last class was in the gym.

Hannah changed and went to the gym by following Marinette. She began to like the girl a lot. She helped her. Hannah had left all her friends somewhere behind, or they left her behind, and this new girl might be her friend there in France. Both of them were walking behind Adrien.

“Listen, Hannah.” Marinette spoke quietly. “I can borrow four books from the library too.” She waited for the girl to react.

Hannah nodded that she understood.

“I need only one, for the literature.” The class president continued slowly and quietly. The boy before them slowed down and eavesdropped on their conversation, not as subtle as he would like to think he was. “I can borrow a few books for you.” Marinette added.

Hannah nodded and smiled. “Thank you very much Marinette.” She replied politely as she saw in some film on TV.

They were standing in the gym.

“Which books do you need?” Adrien asked with a small smile. “I might have them at home.”

Hannah was not sure if she wanted to borrow anything from this boy. She still remembered quite clearly how he laughed at her when she asked him for his name.

Marinette noticed the awkwardness of her new classmate. Not that she was much less awkward in front of her crush. However, this was different kind of awkwardness, Marinette could tell, she was an expert.

“Hannah? Do you want to borrow Adrien from books?” Marinette asked then she flailed her hands. “I mean do you want Adrien from books?” Then she flailed her hands once more. “Books! Adrien has books. Many!”

Hannah smiled widely.

“Can I see?” She was so happy. This boy had many books, she loved books.

“No, um, you see, my father is very restrictive.” Adrien started to explain.

Marinette frowned. Was this girl trying to get into the room of her crush just like Lila?

Hannah raised her eyebrows with worried eyes.

“Sorry, I misunderstood.” She muttered and her fade dropped, she looked at her feet. It was a phrase she used often.

“No, no it is fine.” Adrien waved his hands defensively.

The boy wanted to elaborate, but the teacher called for attention.

Hannah was shorter than Mylenne and Alix and Max. Apparently she was so short that she inspired some comments from Chloe and Kim that induced some laughter from the class and a few glares towards the said duo from everyone who was short, and a few who were not.

The gym teacher explained what they were about to do.

Hannah did not understand a word.

They were running in a circle around the gym. Hannah was slow due to her short legs and it took her some time to carefully follow her classmates. Alix was also short, but the girl was fast. Yet, Hannah was not the slowest. Lila went to the teacher with some excuse and sat on the bench. Then the teacher whistled and they all stopped.

They were divided into teams. Hannah grinned when she noticed they were given the ball for handball. She knew how to play that. Chloe protested, flung her ponytail and stomped over to the bench. The two girls on the bench sat on the far ends of it and avoided to look at each other.

Hannah was on the team with Adrien, Max, Alix, Sabrina and Nathaniel. Kim, Nino, Marinette, Alya, Juleka and Rose were on the other team. Finally, the teacher told Ivan to join her team while Mylenne went tot he other team. Ivan instantly took the position of the goalkeeper, while Nino was defending the other team’s goal.

The opposite team had the ball. Kim passed the ball to Alya, then got it back then returned it and then Alya passed the ball to Marinette. Adrien jumped in front of the girl and smiled. Marinette dropped the ball and he stole it without any effort. But he passed it towards Max and Kim quickly cut the ball back when Max passed it towards Nathaniel. The red haired boy was a bit too slow. But then Hannah ran, grabbed the ball, passed between Kim’s two legs and passed the ball straight back to Adrien. The boy quickly grabbed it with surprise in his face, he lead the ball, jumped and there was just no chance for Nino to defend that. Adrien offered his fist for a fist bump, but Hannah stared at his fist as she was not sure what to do until she saw what Alix did as well as the rest of her team so she bumped his fist too.

The next time it was Kim who was running towards their goal and jumped. Against all odds, Hannah fearlessly jumped in defence. Kim scored effortlessly. Unfortunately his body also slammed Hannah to the floor. She grunted in pain but was quickly back on her feet. She earned a few worried looks. But she just smiled and picked up the ball to take it to the centre.

They continued the game. It was rather easy for Adrien to steal a ball from Marinette, so easy that Alya, Juleka and Rose stopped passing her the ball. Marinette groaned in frustrations as the girls shrugged and winked at her. She understood why she did not get the ball, but Adrien looked so happy each time he stole the ball from his friend that Marinette did not even mind.

Hannah gave all she had and more and when Kim slammed her into the floor the next time, Adrien and Alix both started to talk simultaneously and she did not understand a word save that both of them were worried. Max was reciting several types of injuries behind her back, and Hannah understood that only thanks to the training of her parents. Adrien and Alix were soon joined by Marinette and other girls as they examined Hannah.

The teacher whistled and approached and criticised Kim. The boy shrugged and looked at the new girl. He muttered an apology and Hannah simply smiled back.

Finally the game was over and they could change back to their normal clothes.

Hannah changed and went into the library with Marinette.

The blue haired girl was determined to be nice to this new girl.

“You need books that would help you learn French?” Marinette asked with serious note in her tone.

Hannah nodded. It was a big deal for her to admit that.

“I need to learn the way you speak?” Hannah did not intend that as a question but it sounded that way.

“Okay, they have some books with audio material, for practice of proper pronunciation.” Marinette sighed as she looked for the books. Hannah just nodded, she did not understand what she was just offered until she saw. It was a book for children with speech disabilities, with exercises to practice. She was happy and nodded in approval. Marinette got her three of those books, in the order of difficulty. But she was allowed to take only one, and had to sign an extra form for that, and she was allowed only because she was a class president.

“You do not have any disabilities, don’t you?” Marinette asked, there was a rule that students with disabilities could in fact get more support from the school.

“No, no disabilities.” Hannah replied proudly. Save she did not know French, but she was determined to mend that one on her own. Well, she would probably try and hide any other disability, if she had one. She was so used to fixing all her problems herself, and not only her own problems, that it was really nice to meet someone who would help her for a change.

Marinette accepted the praise from her new classmate with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette (and Adrien) will learn more about their new classmate in the next chapter.  
> It is the little things that matter here.


	5. Come Over for a Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah surprises her classmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter mostly about the new girl.

Come over for a visit

Hannah loaded the books in her backpack and additional bag. She was determined to spend the rest of the day practising her French (which annoyed her brothers immensely, but sometimes they joined in, perhaps today they would if they had similar experience in their school).

They found Adrien in front of the school.

“Hi Adrien!” Marinette smiled widely.

“Oh, hi Marinette, Hannah!” He greeted with a huge smile. “Oh, how many books you got?”

“She got at least seven books from the library.” Marinette smiled. Hannah nodded to confirm. She quickly greeted both of them and was on her way.

“My driver is stuck in traffic.” Adrien said sheepishly. “And my fencing practice finished early. Kagami is not yet back from Japan.”

Marinette’s heart flipped a little at the mention of the Japanese girl. She remembered how close Adrien and Kagami got, she expected they were dating, or a couple, or something.

“Do you miss her?” She asked, she was not sure why.

“Well yes, I missed all my friends during holidays.” Adrien smiled gently. Marinette thought that the gentle smile was for Kagami in his thoughts and her heart clenched little more.

Both of them were walking away from school in the direction of her bakery. They met Hannah with two boys who were almost the same height as her, but it was obvious they were even younger and they carried bags that clearly showed they were in a particular elementary school nearby.

“Hi Marinette Adrien.” Hannah smiled and waved toward them.

“Hi Hannah” They both greeted. Adrien changed the direction to intercept the new girl. Marinette joined him.

“These are my brothers, Eddie and Robbie.” She introduced the two boys on her sides. Both boys were obviously burdened by additional books just like her.

“Hi boys, my name is Marinette.” Marinette greeted.

“Your brothers?” Adrien raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, I have two brothers.” Hannah knew she stated the obvious, but it was a sentence she practised so well and she was so proud of it. Then she turned to her brothers.

“These are my classmates, Marinette and Adrien.” She told the boys in French. Both boys protested to their sister in a language they did not understand but they offered their hands to shake.

“You should speak in French even if I am present.” Hannah scolded her brothers, but both of them glared at their sister and muttered something.

They were standing on the edge of the park that was close to Marinette’s bakery.

“Are you going home?” Adrien smiled to the two boys. They both grunted something and looked at each other, then Hannah glared at both of them and looked back at Adrien.

“Yes.” One of the boys muttered.

“We are going home.” The other boy added and looked at his sister.

“Excellent.” She smiled back to her brother proud of his French. “Yes we are going home.” Then she turned towards Marinette and Adrien. “Would you like to join us?” She was very proud. She learned all the phrases, at least the short ones, if only she understood them each time Parisians spoke them in their own fast speech.

Adrien positively beamed at the girl, he knew her for only one day and he was already invited to her home. Marinette frowned at first as she was surprised by this girl who was inviting two kids she only met that morning to her own home? But Hannah and her brothers looked and both of them eager and expectantly.

“You are my classmates.” Hannah added with a smile. It was totally normal for her. All her classmates were welcome to her home. Always. Back home, while they lived more or less a normal life, her parents were visited by their patients, all times of day and night there was a ring at the door and perfect strangers would ask her for her parents only for her to respond that her parents were in the hospital. It all changed, her life changed, but she missed that friendly part. And she wanted to make friends, she wanted friends so desperately that she did not even think if she was going too far and too soon.

“Why not?” Adrien looked at Marinette. She smiled back at his warm green eyes and gentle smile. Then she nodded. Of course she did. It was Adrien who asked her.

“Great.” Hannah smiled and her brothers smiled widely. “We live there.” The girl pointed towards a building just on the other side of the park.

They walked to the other side of the park and entered a building. It was soon obvious this was not a normal building. People sat on the stairs and chatted. Women in house dresses with towels over their head and/or babies in their arms walked along the corridors. Men sat on chairs in a corridor and played cards on a small coffee table. There were sofas and other furniture in the corridors. There were people sleeping there. They climbed all the way up to the top floor. She entered a corridor, passed a few men who played cards and shouted something after her, she greeted the men in passing and her brothers repeated the greeting. Marinette and Adrien greeted with ‘bon jour’ as none of them was able to repeat the words they just heard.

Hannah unlocked the door at the end of the corridor. They entered into space that served as both the entry hall and the kitchenette, it was tiny. From there they walked into a room that was obviously both a living room and a bedroom. There was only one French balcony at the end of the room and that was the only source of daylight. The space was tiny. And there was ladder that lead to a gallery. The boys dumped their bags and went straight to the fridge.

“Would you like juice or water?” Hannah asked politely. They both asked for water. Hannah brought the glasses to the desk and then a plate with rectangular shapes of something yellow with cheese. They took a piece each.

“This is salty.” Adrien frowned. But he felt Plagg scratched his chest under his shirt.

“Yes.” Hannah smiled.

“What is it?” Marinette asked genuinely interested.

The boys were eating, Adrien smuggled a piece into his shirt to calm down his kwami while Hannah struggled to explain what they were eating. Apparently the recipe was extremely simple, corn flour, water, cheese and salt. It was something traditional from her country.

After they ate, Hannah collected the empty plates and disposed them while the boys took out their books. Adrien took his glass to get more water.

“There is no TV?” Marinette asked.

“We watch TV on the computer.” Hannah smiled. “Come upstairs, I will show you.”

The girls already climbed the ladder when Adrien followed. The space on the gallery reminded Marinette of her loft bed, except there was no window so it was much darker. There were three mattresses arranged in parallel from one wall to the other with narrow gaps between them. They had sheets and pillows and simple blankets, but everything was rather basic. The far end was full of shelves with little clothes and books and even a few toys.

Hannah pulled out a laptop and a charging cable.

“What would you like to watch?” she asked as the laptop was booting.

“We do not need to watch TV.” Marinette shrugged.

“Do you have any games?” Adrien spoke out loud.

Hannah left the laptop on the side of the bed and took out several decks of cards and a cardboard game of chess.

“I have these, if you want to play.” She smiled and offered. It was clear that she made the chess herself, she cut the figures and glued them to make recognizable forms and draw the black squares on the piece of cardboard. The decks of cards were obviously worn out.

Adrien was turning around quickly. Marinette had another look at the space the children had and then looked down. She saw that the double bed was in fact a sofa. There was a small coffee table next to it and a wardrobe on the other side, next to the large window that lead to the balcony. She knew they were exactly on top of the dining table and the beds were above the entrance, the kitchen and the small bathroom. The whole space was probably double the size of her own room.

“This is you whole space?” Adrien motioned with his arm to encompass the space.

“My brothers and me sleep here.” She pointed to the three mattresses. “This is our stuff here.” She pointed towards the shelves. “My parents sleep downstairs.” She pointed towards the bed. “We study at the table downstairs.” She shrugged.

Marinette was appalled. How could a family of five live squeezed in in such a tiny space? She thought her home was small.

“This is my home now.” Hannah continued. “You are welcome any time.” She smiled openly. She opened her heart and her home to her two classmates, she wanted to make friends, she wanted it so badly, she missed her old friends but she knew there was little chance to see them ever again, she knew few of them did not survive.

“You parents don’t mind?” Adrien frowned.

That obviously challenged Hannah to form a sentence on her own, straight from her head. It took her some time.

“When they sleep? We play in the corridor.” She shrugged. “I study in the corridor too.” She smiled.

Marinette remembered those men playing cards and the old furniture she saw on the way. She remembered how the girl struggled with French language, at least she could help her with that. She also made a mental note to bring pastries from her bakery to this family.

“Where are you from?” Adrien asked the new girl. He smiled and his face held an expression of innocent curiosity.

Hannah bowed her head again. She knew what was coming. She would tell the name of the country where she came from and everyone knew there was war and expected her to be a terrorist. She took in a deep breath.

“Alboran.” She whispered as if she was scared of the word. (The name of the country is invented, her experiences can be applied to any country at war.)

“But there is war.” Adrien countered. Marinette was silent. This was a whole new world for both of them. The dots started to connect, the tiny flat where they lived, the building they were in, her poor knowledge of French. She was poor, she was a refugee, not that her two classmates comprehended what that meant.

“Yes.” Hannah stared at her feet. “We had to leave.” She said it quietly, she still did not understand why, her father simply ran into their shelter and they picked up their documents and few belongings as well as her mother on the way. He said they lost and had to leave. Her home was destroyed months before that.

“It is okay.” Marinette smiled. “You are safe here.” She had no idea what it was like for this girl. Marinette always fought the akuma for Paris, sometimes for the whole planet, but she never contemplated that people had to leave their homes to get away from the danger.

“We have akuma” Adrien shrugged. “It is not much different.” He added. He saw plenty of destruction as Chat Noir, he was targeted, he was hit and the boy did no think there was much difference between the war him and Ladybug fought agains Hawk Moth and whatever war was going on somewhere else in the world.

“Ladybug brings everyone back.” Hannah’s voice started to shake. “I wish” she continued. “I wish she could do that in my country.” There it was, the sentences of her speech that she prepared, a short version for Ladybug and Chat Noir. She wanted to ask the superheroes if it was possible to reverse the consequences of other battles and other wars.

“Her magic does not work that way.” Marinette sniffed. She understood the wish, she really did, because she really liked the fact that she could bring everything back with a few magic words. It was a huge responsibility on her back, but she could do it. Fighting battles would be so much harder if she could not.

Adrien was staring at the tiny space, he began to feel the hint of his claustrophobia. The only source of light was downstairs and it was rather dark. The boy was baffled. He had a huge room full of games and yet his father never let him bring any friends. This girl had nothing and yet she invited him and Marinette to her tiny home.

“Why don’t we look at that homework we got today?” Marinette proposed. “Just to see if you got it right?” Adrien wanted to protest at first and perhaps to learn a new card game but then he remembered how the girl had issues with the language and maybe Marinette was right.

Soon all five kids had their homework opened at the small dining table. They all had their school bags with them and there was apparently not much else to do. Adrien just assembled his things on the desk when his phone rang. He asked his driver to pick him up at the corner of the park.

“I’m sorry, I have to go.” The boy smiled. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

The girl and her brothers beamed back.

“Come back to us soon.” One boy replied with huge eyes. The other boy nodded quickly.

“Thank you for visiting us.” Hannah smiled as she saw him off to the door of the small flat.

Marinette was arranging her books and notebooks while Hannah was explaining some assignment her brothers got in school. The boys returned to writing up their homework.

Marinette was surprised how much history Hannah knew but still she got her homework assignment totally wrong. Apparently the girl did not understand what was the point of the assignment, it was not explained, it was considered the common knowledge. Marinette struggled to explain, not because she could not, but because she had to use very simple sentences. But once she provided her own example as she started to solve her own worksheet, Hannah quickly followed.

They both agreed that literature was a lost cause for a first day.

But when it came to science, it was Hannah who explained. She even performed a few experiments to illustrate the impulse, the acceleration, the centrifugal and the centripetal force. It was something Marinette had a lot of experience with, but she just needed to name it, the strain on the yoyo string, the g forces pulling her down while she would swing below the Eiffel Tower.

“The swinging period of the pendulum depends on the length of the chord.” Hannah recited to Marinette’s amazement. She even produced a yoyo out from somewhere for the last two, it was small and wooden and the girl obviously painted it red with black spots herself. Marinette did not know if she wanted to laugh or to cry.

That evening, Marinette made her parents bring some of the unsold pastries across the park to her new classmate. Hannah’s father got home and gratefully took the pastries. He was too tired of his shift in the hospital for much else save a short polite conversation. The man was glad to meet the parents of his daughter’s classmate. The boys were rather happy that they were bakers and brought pastries with them. Marinette, Sabine and Tom walked back home across the park in silence. Once they reached their home, their eyes were glossy with tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, Hannah is a nerd with a mission. And she has no clue how other people live.  
> The next chapter should finally start to deal with the complicated love square plus two.


	6. Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An akuma fight that initiates some memories and reflections.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picking up on the mood after the Miracle Queen and some ice cream flavours from the Season 2.

Ice Cream

Nobody asked Adrien where he was (the boy was not complaining) and his Chinese tutor was late due to traffic too, so he could hope that nobody noticed. Then again, nobody joined him for dinner, not even Nathalie who would usually come at least to apologize for his father’s absence. Adrien ate his meal and retreated back to his room. According to his schedule he was to play the piano until bedtime, but he was not in the mood, not really. Instead, he browsed the internet to get the information on his new classmate and the country where she comes from.

“This is so confusing, Plagg.” Adrien complained. “It seems that every news post out there has a different story about what went wrong there.”

“It depends on the point of view.” Plagg replied from his shoulder.

“But how do I know what really happened?” The boy complained. “Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy out there?”

“It is not always so easy.” Plagg muttered.

“Have you been involved in wars, Plagg?” Adrien narrowed his eyes.

“Oh have I been.” The tiny black cat rolled his green eyes and then flattened his ears. The boy did not need his kwami to answer, he already knew, of course Plagg was involved in waging wars, he was probably the ultimate weapon.

“Care to enlighten me oh you mighty deity?” Adrien smiled to his kwami. “How do I know what happened to Hannah?”

“The only way to learn what happened to your friend is to ask her yourself.” Plagg retorted as he glanced at his chosen. “Besides, she looked just fine and she still has her family.”

“Yeah, she does.” The boy’s voice faltered a little as he was reading an article on the internet. “The country she lived in fell apart.” He continued, he was reading different numbers on the dead, wounded, resettled and refugees, but could not picture it in his mind.

Plagg watched the computer screen and steered his chosen away from any content that might be a little too much for the sheltered boy. The tiny deity was at first relieved that Adrien had finally had a distraction from his complicated love life and terrible family life, he did not appreciate the direction that this particular distraction had taken.

“Why don’t you thing what your new friend needs now instead of what happened to her country. She’ll tell you when she feels ready.” Plagg stressed the words your new friend, because that girl needed friends as much as his boy did.

“You are right.” Adrien grinned.

That evening Adrien wanted to take all his games from his room and bring to the family where he spent that half hour after school.

“They do not have the space for any of that, kid.” Plagg warned.

“You are probably right.” Adrien sighed.

“I say you bring them some Camembert.” The tiny god of destruction proposed.

“You must have been as touched as me if you would give them your favourite cheese.” The boy replied as he scanned his huge room. He had no idea what would the kids need, he wanted to help but had no idea where to start.

Plagg just turned away and floated over to the boys wardrobe to hide his own feelings. He returned and floated at a respectful distance. The tiny god of destruction saw many wars, he saw too many battles where the consequences were not reversible. He knew that the family needed to feel accepted more than they needed anything else.

Adrien did not have the time to reach a decision he was interrupted by the news about an akuma attack.

Marinette was in her room after she wished her parents good night.

“It is so good that I can revert the damage from the battle, Tikki” Marinette whispered to her kwami. “I used to think it was such a big responsibility, but now I think about it as a gift.”

“I am glad you see it that way, Marinette.” Tikki chirped.

“I can’t imagine how would the life in Paris look like if we could not revert what happened.” Marinette shuddered as the memories of the Siren and Stormy Weather struck her followed by Chat Blanc. The last one switched her mind back to the subject that bothered her for her whole summer.

“I can’t love Adrien, he has Kagami now, I should move on.” She whispered to herself as Tikki retreated to her cookie and waited for her chosen to complete her late evening mantra. Marinette looked at those few posters of Adrien she kept, she removed one each day that Kagami and Adrien had one of their friendly dates. It was easier that way, she would chose one that she could be without and remove his smiling face from her wall.

“But I did not move on to Luka.” The girl sighed. “He is so nice to me. Why can’t I just feel the same way about him as I feel for Adrien?”

“Because then you would be crazy about two boys at once.” Tikki chirped her reply, it was not the first time she said those words that summer.

“Yeah.” Marinette closed her eyes. A boy with blue eyes dressed in a white catsuit was there, crying about the love they had and calling her civilian name to Ladybug.

“And I can’t love Chat Noir.” She whispered. She glanced towards the large chest where the miracle box was hidden after Master Fu passed her the guardianship. Her love life seemed irrelevant when compared to the wight of her duties and responsibilities.

Tikki stayed silent. The tiny red goddess of creation was around for a long time, but she was not supposed to interfere in the love life of her chosen. That is when the news announced yet another akuma attack in the city of Paris.

Ladybug and Chat Noir met at the Pont des Artes where Andre was calling them. The man was hiding behind the bench while the akuma stalked his ice cream cart on the bank of the Seine nearby.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir” Andre called. “The akuma is all my fault.” The man cried. “I gave them their soulmate ice cream, but she is allergic on the almonds for his eyes and he is allergic to strawberries for her lips.”

“That is okay, there was no way for you to know that.” Ladybug smiled gently at Andre and switched her attention towards the akuma. She had to focus on the akuma and not thing about the ice cream flavours. The sight of Andre’s cart held painful memories of her giving up on Adrien and let him and Kagami share their ice cream as well as her attempts to fall in love with Luka. She liked the boy, she really did, and it was not in a completely friendly way, it was not the way she liked Nino, for example, but it was not the way she liked Adrien either. Okay, no boys, akuma ahead.

“That means they are not meant for each other?” Chat asked out of pure cat curiosity.

“No” Andre replied feeling guilt in his voice. “I could have combined peach for his lips and milk chocolate for her eyes, or something else. It is all my fault.”

“It is not your fault.” Ladybug consoled the man while she grumbled inside, Andre and his stupid ice cream flavours and even more stupid colours that match lips or eyes or hair.

“It is my magical ice cream, it is supposed to bring two souls together, not to tear them apart.” The man whined.

“It does, as long as long as you believe in its magic.” Chat sighed.

“Thank you for believing in me young heroes.” Andre smiled gratefully.

Ladybug smiled, but turned away to hide her eyes and the fact that she did not believe in its magic any more. Chat sighed and looked to the other side, he used to believe in its magic, it just did not work for him, apaprently.

“The akuma is composed of both of them?” Ladybug asked all business, she did not want to discuss the ice cream flavours, there were memories surfacing in her mind that she did not need in battle.

“Yes.” Andre replied.

“I guess that means the ice cream did bring them together.” Chat teased, but Andre was about to start crying again. “And they are throwing ice cream scoops on random civilians and make them turn red and bloat.” Chat pointed with his claw and jumped ahead to protect the next group of civilians and shield them while rotating his baton.

“Thank you Andre.” Ladybug replied and swung her yoyo. She landed on a building and swung a few civilians to safety before she landed just behind Chat Noir.

“The akuma must be in their weapon.” She told Chat as she observed one of the civilians who got hit, the person was completely red in the face and swollen and running after them.

“It looks like the persons they hit become their minions, Chat.” Ladybug warned, grabbed her partner by his waist and launched her yoyo to a nearby rooftop. They both rolled away from the edge when they landed as they evaded more ice scoops.

Chat grinned awkwardly and removed himself from Ladybug. Ever since he decided to let go of her, he found those intimate positions most tempting to resume his flirting, but he managed to school himself.

“Lucky charm!” Ladybug called the moment she was on her feet. She got a red party hat with black spots.

“Going to a party?” Chat grinned.

“Exactly.” She smiled as she observed the cone. “I will have to be a distraction while you use your power on the weapon.” She explained her plan briefly, it was very simple.

“Hey, I have an empty ice cream cone over here.” Ladybug taunted the akuma and waved the paper party hat. The akuma launched a few ice cream scoops her way and she caught them in the cone while she launched her yoyo towards the akuma and wrapped their arms to their torso. Chat jumped from his hiding and destroyed the weapon. Ladybug quickly cleansed the violet butterfly, threw the paper cone in the air and called the Ladybug cure.

The two superheroes bumped their fists with a winning smile.

The couple that appeared after the akuma disappeared was still angry with each other and their faith.

“It is not my fault you are allergic to strawberries.” She shouted.

“I didn’t even know your were allergic to almonds.” He retorted and crossed his arms.

“I guess that is a clear sign we are not meant to be.” She raised her nose. “I was so stupid to think so only because we function so good together.”

“I thought so also, you made me be a better man.” The man sniffed.

“Your allergies to the ice cream do not mean you can’t be together.” Chat cut in.

“Yeah, you could combine other flavours that signify you as a couple.” Ladybug added.

“Yes” Andre shouted as he was running over. “I am sure we can find something fit for both of you.”

The couple and Andre went to his ice cream cart and they negotiated a combination of tastes for them.

“I just wish it did not take this for him to become more flexible.” Ladybug muttered to herself as the first warning sounded from her miraculous.

“Why?” Chat asked curious as always.

Ladybug was startled, she did not expect anyone to hear that comment. She glared at Chat for a moment until she smiled back.

“I’m sorry, Ladybug, I did not mean to pry.” His eyes dropped to his feet.

“It is okay, it is not your fault, just some sad memories from my civilian life.” She replied with her usual smile that could lit up a street, but Chat saw the sadness in her eyes.

“You have sad memories related to Andre and his ice cream?” He asked quietly and his ring sounded the first alarm.

“I ...” Ladybug did not really want to remember, she did not want to talk about that.

“Bug?” Chat hunched his back and looked at her, his curious green eyes pierced right through her.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir, how about some ice cream for you, on the house?” Andre called from his ice cream cart after he served the previously akumatized couple.

Chat beamed.

Ladybug shook her head.

Chat deflated.

“As a thank you to the two Parisian superheroes.” Andre insisted.

“You do not have to do it if you don’t want to, Bug.” Chat whispered.

Ladybug remembered how Andre got akumatized the last time she refused his ice cream so she finally relented.

“It is okay, we can share an ice cream.” She finally spoke. “If it is okay with you?” She added. He grinned back at her. “But do not read too much into that.” She rolled her eyes.

“Strawberry with chocolate bits and mint with chocolate topping.” Andre offered. “Any allergies?”

They both smiled and took the ice cream and the spoons. They went away to eat in privacy.

“I used to dream about a date like this.” Chat smiled dreamily. But one look at his partner told him he should have kept that to himself.

“This is not a date.” Ladybug looked away. She kept thinking how that was a mistake. Her miraculous issued one more warning. “I should have escaped while I had a chance.” She had an excuse her miraculous was about to run out of time.

“Come on, I know this is not a date, it is just really good ice cream and good company. We earned this Bug.” Chat tried to fix the situation.

“It is really good ice cream.” Ladybug confirmed as she took more. “And nice company.” She added thoughtfully. She really did not want to hurt his feelings. She took more ice cream. Chat was eating quickly and smiled at her. “I’m sorry Chat, it is not your fault I am in a bad mood.”

“Yeah, you mentioned.” He muttered to himself, he did not want to remind her and spoil the mood that had just started to improve, so he filled his mouth with ice cream to keep himself busy and silent.

“I know your curiosity is eating you alive.” Ladybug smirked.

“Your civilian stuff, I get it, you do not have to tell me.” He hurried his words out between taking more ice cream as his miraculous reminded him his time was running out too.

“It’s stupid, it is just an ice cream, very nice and tasty ice cream, but only an ice cream, people give it too much meaning anyway.” Ladybug muttered while she was eating the said ice cream. “Just don’t tell that to Andre, please.” She added for good measure, she did not want the man to be akumatized again.

“I won’t.” Chat pretended to zip his mouth. “Once I went to his ice cream cart on my own, as a civilian.” Ladybug stared at him. They were not supposed to talk about their civilian lives. But Chat ignored her warning. “And I got _s_ _trawberry with black chocolate chip,_ _b_ _lackberries for her hair, and blueberry ice-cream just like her sky blue stare_.” Chat smiled dreamily.

Ladybug sniffed. She stopped eating the ice cream.

“I also went to Andre as a civilian alone once, and I got scoops that resembled the boy I love, but it did not mean anything in the end.” She sighed and glanced towards Chat quickly. She was well aware that the same scoops would describe the boy that she was sharing her ice cream with so she decided not to tell him what she got.

“I guess you are right.” Chat sighed too.

Ladybug’s earrings beeped.

“It is time for me to start going.” Ladybug smiled. “I will leave the rest of the ice cream to you. Good night Chat.” She threw her yoyo and flung away while Chat was saying his greeting.

There was not much time left for Chat too, so he threw the rest of the ice cream in his mouth, shuddered at the cold and vaulted away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter goes back to the school and Alya introduces herself to Hannah and praises Lila.


	7. The Ladyblogger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The resident class journalist finally interrogates the new girl, but she is more focused on praising Lila than getting the answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alya is not so bad here, she just spent too much time with Lila and is acting under her influence.

The Ladyblogger

“Good morning Adrien.” Nathalie greeted while the boy was heading for his breakfast with no emotion in her voice. “You have a photo shoot this afternoon after school.” She informed about the boy’s schedule as per usual.

“Nathalie, could I have my lunch at school? There is no point for me to go home for lunch if father is always absent and that way I could spend more time on my school assignments in the school library.” The boy explained his case. That way he could spend more time with his friends, but his friends meant Nino, and the boy knew that his father did not approve of his friends. Besides, he needed to actually be in school if he wanted to prevent Lila from hurting Marinette.

“I will talk to your father.” Nathalie replied coldly and left the boy to go and sit at a huge table and have his breakfast alone. Adrien sneaked a few pieces of cheese into his shirt for Plagg. The tiny god of destruction was unusually silent. The boy did not complain, he knew there will be teasing at some point in the future.

Adrien was finishing his breakfast when Nathalie returned with a plain plastic box.

“This is your lunch for today. Please make sure you keep to your eating schedule, you have a photo shoot in the afternoon.” She warned him and turned back on her heel. Adrien took the box and almost bounced on his feet as he was walking out from the Agreste mansion. He was allowed to have the lunch break with his friends.

That morning Marinette was walking to school lost in her own thoughts and concerns about the boys and her love life when Hannah run up to her from behind. Marinette knew she left for school at the last moment and the new girl was obviously not much better. The girls hurried to school together.

“Last night I read a book.” Hannah announced proudly. “And I did the speaking exercises. My brothers trained with me.” She continued, it sounded a bit off and unnatural, as if she practised what she wanted to say. Marinette smiled and praised her new classmate. That new girl got under her skin quickly. The two giggling girls just reached the school steps when a familiar car pulled over.

“You must have trained speaking for hours.” Marinette smiled.

“We did until midnight. Papa can sleep. Mother got home so we stopped.” Hannah shrugged. Her face changed when she mentioned her mother but then she smiled again.

“I borrowed a book with vocal exercises in French for Hannah.” Marinette explained to Adrien what kind of a book it way and that was not something a student could take from the library. The girl smiled widely, she looked so genuinely happy as she tried to follow the conversation between Adrien and Marinette.

“Excellent.” Adrien beamed. He was not sure what Hannah was talking about until Marinette explained. “You are a great friend, Marinette.” The boy wished he could help more. Perhaps he had some of those books at home? He remembered how he and his mother used to practice reading some text just for him to train proper pronunciation and be presentable as an heir to a fashion empire.

“We have French today. Are you ready?” Marinette smiled to Hannah encouragingly.

“Yeah” Hannah slumped her shoulders down, it was obviously the answer was for the first sentence not the question. She was not ready and she knew it.

Alya stormed over with her phone and the most recent posts on the Ladyblog and all the excitement that always engulfed her when she had something new about the two superheroes. She dragged Nino along who just smiled at his classmates, he did not get a chance to speak. Hannah was not yet ready to follow that. Both Adrien and Marinette adjusted to her level of understanding of the spoken French language. This was just too much and too fast and too much slang for a poor foreign girl. But she tried, she really did. So she just tagged along, walked beside her classmates and tried to at least recognize the subject of their conversation.

Of course it was a photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir sharing an ice cream from Andre, of course someone took a photo of them taking that ice cream and of course Alya got it. Marinette felt her heart sing in her stomach. Adrien blushed slightly as he took a look at the photo, he had a small smile on his face. It was one of his dream dates with Ladybug, although they did not express their undying love over the ice cream, it was not so bad, they actually shared some unidentified titbits from their private lives and he learned that Ladybug did not in fact believe in the magic of Andre’s ice cream because she got disappointed.

Alya was gushing about sailing of her ship. Nino was trying hard to keep her more or less not screaming about it. Hannah was obviously lost. So nobody noticed how the other two students were lost in their own thoughts.

“So, Anna?” Alya asked as she turned to the new girl.

“Hannah.” The girl smiled. She knew the French never pronounced the ‘h’ in the beginning, but she was persistent.

“We were wondering the whole day yesterday. What’s the story with you?” Alya pushed with questions. “Do you have parents working in diplomacy?” Marinette winced at the question while Adrien prevented himself to gag and smiled his perfect model smile. Even Nino frowned. “Do they work in the entertainment business? Are they famous? How did you get here?” Alya continued to shower the girl with questions, it was just her usual curiosity. Nino noticed that Alya was interrogating the new girl and both his best bro and her best friend frowned at the treatment. Her questions were not totally shallow, Hannah was obviously a foreigner so Alya assumed … a lot. Besides, he knew the gossip started by Lila and who inspired those questions.

Those were many questions, Hannah understood most of it. She simply shook her head.

“Come on, you moved into the centre of Paris, you got into this school, into our class, you must be totally exceptional. Everyone in our class is has some talent.” Alya pushed further. “I am the author of the famous Ladyblog.” She mentioned each of their classmates and what they were doing, she did not elaborate on Marinette and Adrien as Alya assumed that the two already introduced themselves with all their talents and activities.

“I am just a girl.” Hannah replied timidly. She did not consider herself to be much and she did not even aspire to be more than a really good student. She had her dreams and hopes but she knew well that the only thing that could get her anywhere was what she knew. They could only take a few things with them when her family escaped, but nobody could take away their skills and knowledge. That was what made the difference for them in the end, and that was what probably saved their lives and enabled them to live in Paris after everything they have been through.

They were walking over the school courtyard towards the locker room. Lila was telling another of her tall tales again. Hannah could recognize the names of several charities as well as prince Ali and other celebrities, something about the environment and climate and saving children but she did not understand the story behind.

“I can’t believe that girl.” Alya positively beamed towards Lila as she spoke to Hannah. One blonde boy and one raven haired girl both muttered ‘neither can I’.

“Lila works in charities with prince Ali.” She added to Hannah. “She helps the poor and the hungry and the refugees and fights climate change.”

The new girl positively beamed at that Lila girl and everything she just heard about her. The war in her country broke out after several years of drought, there was less and less food and it was more and more expensive, until those who could not afford to feed themselves decided to speed up the procedure and just waged war. She read an article how wars were related to the climate change now. She smiled admirably towards Lila. So that girl actually worked for charities that fed Hannah and her family, provided medicine and books and essential education and finally ensured transfer to a country that would grant them sanctuary. Lila was like a saint to Hannah, like an angel from heavens, she was that shiny star, far and unreachable and Hannah could only admire from afar. Because the new girl noticed that Lila sometimes shot glares in her direction, as if she knew how Hannah lied in her school applications, how she sometimes forged her data, her citizenship, her place of birth, only to be able to follow her family to safety. It was either that or her family would have left her behind. (Details to be revealed later in the story).

Both Adrien and Marinette noticed how Hannah regarded Lila and how the Italian glared back just for a moment before she assumed back her usual act.

Adrien thought that Lila was angry with Marinette and was scheming some new lie to make her look bad (and he was not wrong), so he tried to fetch the words that the liar was speaking, but there was nothing that suggested she was actually speaking about Marinette. He positioned himself protectively between the girls and the liar and listened.

“I make sure that the charities I work for help every child, we do not cherry pick the ones we like and help them.” Lila was preaching to her followers. The tone was acted concern, it was so obvious, she was not even a good actress at that moment, but her listeners were buying it.

Marinette on the other hand recognized that the glare was pointed towards Hannah. She wondered what the new girl did to make Lila hate her so openly, such glares were usually reserved for Marinette and Ladybug.

“That girl is incredible.” Alya continued to gush about Lila to Hannah and the girl simply nodded. “She is the best friends with Ladybug.” Alya continued. Hannah perked up at that piece of informaiton. Marinette and Adrien both stiffened at that claim. Marinette clenched her fists and quietly groaned to release her anger that she felt each time she heard those words. It helped her to calm down. Adrien, on the other hand, was positively certain that Ladybug would never be a friend to someone like Lila, even if she did not debunk her on her first day in school. Alya continued her praise undeterred. “She spent her summer fighting climate change, you know.” The bespectacled journalist continued to praise the liar and repeated briefly all her tall tales from the day before.

Hannah gleamed and smiled and took in each word from Alya with an occasional glance of admiration towards the liar while they walked towards the classroom. She wanted to be like Lila, not famous and well travelled, but she wanted to help people, to be the one who made a difference. Ever since her original dreams were shattered, she harboured new hopes and dreams and was determined to pursue them.

Hannah spent her time in the locker room memorizing which locker belonged to Lila. She wanted to write a thank you note to that girl, a letter where she would profess her gratitude for all the gifts she received after she lost her home, her town, her country and her citizenship. But that meant she would reveal to her her legal status and how she got there. Perhaps she could write that anonymously? But that would not mean much, someone like Lila probably got hundreds of such letters, thousands perhaps. She should sign it, she could trust someone who was so involved in charities like Lila for sure.

They took their French books and went to the classroom.

Adrien kept himself between Lila and Marinette as if that could protect her from the liar. The boy never told her that it was him who persuaded Lila to get her back to school. He was not proud of what he did, let alone how he did it.

Marinette was wary of everything she saw. Apparently Alya ensured that Lila got one more devoted fan and her instinct was telling her it was a particularly bad idea for Hannah to trust Lila. Of course, she noticed how Lila glared at the new girl with almost the same intensity she used for Marinette, when nobody was watching, and she could not help but overhear how Lila started to gossip against Hannah just like she did against Marinette. The class president understood that Hannah might be more vulnerable to lies Lila was spreading than anybody else.

“Hannah” Marinette spoke quietly. “You should be careful what you tell Lila. And you should not trust everything you hear from her.” There was no opportunity to do this clearly and loudly, Marinette could only hope that Hannah understood.

Adrien overheard the conversation as he was just behind the girls. The boy was concerned about Marinette more than about their new classmate. Why would Lila have something against a girl who just started to attend their class? Marinette was worried, perhaps he should be worried too.

Then they entered the classroom.

Alix grinned when she saw the new girl and offered her a high five for a good game they played in the gym on the day before. Her and Kim bantered about who would have her one their team. Max looked at Hannah and greeted her with cautious smile and invited her to a new technologies class they had on Wednesday afternoons after school in the library. Nathaniel was drawing her again, but this time it was a scene from the gym. Hannah felt happy and accepted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we reached the main point of the story.   
> What if Lila targeted someone who actually admired her?   
> The next chapter will continue on that note.


	8. The French Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, the dreaded lessons and an initial review.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is a common practice to perform an initial review at the beginning of a school year and identify students who need additional help.

The French lessons

After the round call, the subject that Hannah dreaded the most started (well, perhaps she dreaded the literature class the most, this was just grammar). She tried to follow the discussion, she really did, she ignored the sounds around her. The teacher was explaining what they learned last year, the review worksheets they were expected to fill in and what they were expected to learn that year.

The girl behind her was talking, but Hannah did not listen, she was too concentrated on the teacher as she tried to catch what was explained. Lila continued to talk and talk although Nathaniel who sat beside her was drawing while the other students paid attention to the teacher, save Kim who was typing some messages on his phone under his desk.

Adrien took a piece of paper from his notebook and to write a short note. It was a warning about Lila. He pondered for a short time about what to actually write there until he decided to go for a simplest solution. ‘Lila got Marinette expelled from school.’ was what he wrote. Then he folded the paper and wrote ‘For Hannah’. He was about to turn and ask Marinette to pass the note when he realized that someone might snatch it an interpret it wrong. So he added ‘From Adrien’ on the outer side of the note and an instruction to destroy the note below the warning on the inside.

The blonde boy observed the teacher carefully, the moment her eyes were down on some papers he passed the note on the table behind him, straight in front of Marinette, without turning around and looking at the girl. He trusted she would do what was needed.

Marinette listened to the teacher, they were about to go through a worksheet that was going to get them through all the grammar they were expected to know by then. She sighed, such assignments often required knowledge of grammar constructions nobody ever used in the real life. And they learned a lot of strange constructs during the last school year. It was supposed to be only a review. But bad score would simply look bad. Then a folded piece of paper landed on the desk before her. ‘From Adrien to Hannah’ the outside of the note said. Marinette looked at the fashionably messy blond hair before her. He never sent her notes during the class. The teachers were not looking kindly when someone broke the rules like that. The model boy never broke the rules like that, and now he was sending messages to Hannah (and not Marinette). She felt slightly jealous, not that she suspected anything romantic, she just wanted to exchange friendly notes with the boy if that was what he wanted. She carefully observed the teacher and quickly passed the note to Hannah behind her. She could only hope that the new girl understood the rules about passing notes in class and would not betray them.

Lila saw the exchange and read what was written outside of the note. Adrien was passing notes to Hannah during lectures? That was just too much. This new girl captured the attention of the model boy so much that he was passing her notes on the second day of school. Hannah covered the note with the palm of her hand and the note disappeared behind her body. Lila could not see what happened after that. She raised her hand. There was no use for her to wait and do this anonymously, the opportunity presented itself.

Hannah stared at the note for a few seconds more than was absolutely necessary.

“Teacher, the class president should explain to the new student that it is not allowed to pass notes during the class.” Lila fluttered her eyelashes. Adrien rolled his eyes and turned around ready to jump at her. Marinette stiffened. The teacher walked over to Hannah and demanded the note with her hand extended.

Hannah stared at the extended hand before she produced a piece of paper and gave it to the teacher who stared at the paper and unfolded it.

“What is this?” She demanded.

“My schedule.” Hannah smiled. “I dropped it.” She added quickly. “Thank you Marinette.” She smiled to the class president. Marinette smiled widely. This girl was good. Adrien beamed at Hannah. Lila glared. The teacher returned the folded sheet of paper and returned to her post in front of the class.

Marinette smiled gently at Hannah and turned around. She did not dare to say anything. She hoped the girl behind understood how much she was appreciated at that moment.

Adrien looked at Lila with narrowed eyes. He was sure she was throwing him into the fire together with the two girls behind him. She must have seen what he wrote on the outside and he did write the from part just because he expected she would not call him out. Way to prove him wrong.

Hannah was thinking about that note. Of course Lila complained about them passing notes in the class. It was against the school rules. Lila was someone who obviously cared about the rules a lot. That was understandable. She worked with professional organisations that took upon some serious issues to resolve. They acted in dire circumstances and the rules were always important. Hannah understood that, the rules were always there, it was not as if she had something against having those rules, but she was somehow always braking them, it was seldom intentional, and even then she felt coerced to do it, by her own circumstances or by people around her. She was glad she was warned. She was sorry she upset Lila by that note. But she was not sorry that she got it and read it before she hid it in her book. She snatched the note from the book and hid it a small pocket inside her shirt. There was no way for her to destroy it while in class.

After the lesson was explained they were expected to read a piece of text and then fill in the worksheets. And they had to deliver the worksheets after lunchtime as they had double period of French and then a study session. The first short break started but nobody moved, everyone was too busy solving their problems.

“You are expected to work on your worksheets on your own, you are allowed to ask questions if you think you do not understand a task and you are allowed to go for the toilet.” The teacher announced and looked at the students carefully. “You got some extra time today, but I expect you to hand over your worksheets before you leave this classroom.” After that, the teacher proceeded to work on some administrative tasks while she checked on the students from time to time.

Hannah was trying for the whole second period to solve the problems and provide the correct answers on her own. She was allowed to use the dictionary although the teacher frowned. She did not dare to use the online thesaurus on her phone. She smuggled her thin notebook with French grammar inside to at least try to understand which sentences are correct and which are wrong. But that helped her only so far. She knew the basic grammar rules rather well, the problem was her vocabulary and the phrases.

Inevitably, the teacher was called outside to collect more paperwork. With a comment how she never liked administration the teacher got on her feet.

“I will be absent for a few minutes. I trust you to solve the problems on your own, but you are allowed to consultations if you need some help, just please let your colleagues solve their problems in peace.” She warned. She would not have left if the worksheets were not prepared against the cheating, and it was a review, and there was only so much that the students could do in a few minutes she planned to be gone, otherwise, shoe would have demanded that someone replaced her in the classroom even for those few minutes.

When the teacher left. The hell broke loose. Lila had an announcement. Alya left her seat. Nino was listening to music and worked on the assignment. Marinette jumped to her feet and turned to Hannah. It was to help her as much as to distract herself from the commotion that Lila was making. Adrien took his own worksheet and turned to the girls. That made Marinette flail and produce a few totally grammatically incorrect sentences that even Hannah proudly recognized as wrong. Hannah protested at first, but then she noticed everyone asked a colleague for help about this and that, few even protested that this should have been a homework. Adrien threw his encouraging models smile and Hannah relented. The boy explained one task and they solved it together, then Marinette got herself together and explained the next task briefly.

“Hey, you got this one okay on your own. Congratulations.” Adrien smiled at Hannah. “See, each of us got slightly different tasks so we can’t copy the answers.” That was the first time Marinette noticed that the examples they got were in fact different so were the answers for all three of them.

“How shrewd.” She admired her teacher. Adrien was proud that he noticed. Hannah was comparing the tasks and beamed, the example sentences were different but the tasks and the questions regarding the examples were the same, they were expected to circle different answers.

Lila did not hear what Adrien said nor she knew nor understood what was the issue with the new girl but she knew she hated her already. And when the boy decided to help Hannah with her task instead of coming to Lila and help her, the Italian transfer student glared angrily at the new girl.

“That new girl is nasty. I just know it.” Lila spoke with pretence of fear. “Look, they are all copying each other’s answers.”

“I asked her what her story was and she refused to tell me.” Alya added.

“She must be hiding something.” Lila replied.

“Listen, I can help you with the answers.” Alya returned to her seat, grabbed her own worksheet and typed the answers in the messaging application 1a, 2b, 3d, 4c and Lila blindly circled the same numbers.

The rest of the class was mostly busy with their worksheets (save Chloe who was busy with her nails, her sheets were already filled in, thank you very much, at least as much as she was willing to bother).

The teacher returned within a few minutes to check on them she glared at Alya who was holding her phone when she entered.

“I am really sorry, teacher, but Ladyblog, you know.” Alya tried to invent an excuse while she bowed her head and put away her phone.

“You are only cheating yourself if you do not learn.” The teacher scolded. “Now, before I leave, you are advised to go through the review you have in the electronic form for your homework, it can help you with the number of points you get for these worksheets.”

The bell rang and announced the lunch break, but only Chloe and Sabrina handed over their worksheets and were ready to leave. Chloe looked at Adrien who simply smiled sheepishly and pretended to work while he waited for her to leave.

“This is the review of all the grammar we learned so far.” Lila cried instantly after the bell rang. “Is it possible for me to get more time and turn in this worksheet tomorrow?” Many classmates turned around towards her.

“No” The teacher gave her a warning look. “Those who do not score well are going to attend the additional classes to catch up.” Hannah looked at the teacher, she was not sure if she understood her correctly. She would have to ask someone to clarify it to her. She did not dare to ask this teacher. Instead, she focused on the last few tasks in the worksheet.

Adrien smiled awkwardly and checked the time, he was finished with his worksheet long time ago but he waited for Lila to leave. He did not have to wait for long. The promise that another task, even if it was homework, could improve their points made most of the students hand over their worksheets and go for lunch break.

Finally, the last worksheets were handed over. Nathaniel was the last one to stay, but nobody was sure if he was actually writing answers or doodling ideas for his next comic book.

“Hey, I have my lunch with me, we can have the lunch together, maybe?” Adrien told Nino and Marinette. He was surprised that Alya was not in the classroom any more, apparently Nino was surprised too.

“I have a sandwich.” Nino grinned. “We can go to the park outside.”

“I have the pastries.” Marinette smiled. “Hannah, come for lunch with us.”

Hannah smiled. She was still shaky from the whole experience, greetings of the students in the morning, the fear about the note, the review worksheet that she felt like it was an exam. She had forgotten to pack her lunch. But maybe she could still go and sit in the park. She smiled and nodded.

They collected the food from their lockers and Hannah discovered she had one cookie packed in her backpack. She smiled, well at least she had something.

Nino sent a message to Alya that they were having the lunch in the park.

Marinette talked with Hannah during the whole lunch break. It was nice for Marinette not to be questioned about Luka, Adrien and Kagami. They mostly discussed the exam they just had and the school rules. Sometimes it was difficult to actually pass the information. The class president enjoyed her duty this time, and she had a grateful listener. The boys were discussing music and playlists.

“What was that note you passed during class?” Alya insisted the moment she joined them. Most of their lunch break had passed and Nino already gave up on waiting for his girlfriend.

Hannah produced the same paper she gave to the teacher.

“You can’t fool me with that.” Alya insisted. Hannah shrugged. She was not about to give her new friends away. She was warned, Lila liked rules, Alya liked Lila, Hannah wanted to look good in their eyes, so she kept quiet about the note.

“Babe, let go of the girl, you are scaring her.” Nino said relaxed by his cool new playlist.

“Are there news on Ladyblog?” Hannah asked more to change the subject than out of real interest. She would do much better to actually open the blog and read it there than to ask Alya to talk about it, but the distraction worked perfectly as the young journalist passionately talked about the recent sharing of the ice cream. Everything was fine while she explained her theories (Marinette and Adrien both hid their blushes, well Marinette did not have to, Alya assigned it to the Adrien proximity issues), Nino pretended to listen (he heard it all before, several times) and Hannah pretended to understand. But then Alya mentioned what Lila was saying about the events and that was when suddenly at least two among them had heard enough.

“The afternoon classes are about to start, let’s go.” Adrien initiated everyone to get on their feet.

“So dude, are you joining me for the music session?” Nino asked his best bro and bumped fists with Adrien.

“Hannah, you are going to the art class?” Marinette asked. Hannah nodded.

“Huh, I have that journalism workshop. That is where the school blog is done as well as all the other writing.” Alya grinned. Hannah smiled back. Out of all of the choices she had, she knew she would have to go for art. She was just not cut out for the other alternatives.

“It is actually writing workshop in the library Alya.” Marinette smiled. “It started as a book club of sorts.” She clarified to Hannah.

“Well, they can discuss their books and literature while I actually write the school blog.” Alya grinned proud of her work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poor girl got that far because she is tough, of course she is naive and might trust blindly to anyone who could represent an idol, but she would not survive what she did without some sense of self-preservation.   
> The protection squad is forming.


	9. Impressionism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah reveals a little more about herself (and to more people than she intended).  
> Girls discuss love issues ... and a hint of how Lila is brainwashing Alya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do not hate Alya after this, she is just mislead.

Impressionism

That afternoon they had the art class. Hannah joined Marinette and entered the classroom cautiously. She first noticed Alix who was looking at the wall while she arranged her spray paints. Rose greeted her and sat in the corner while she listened to some music and was writing text in her notebook. Nathaniel was in the other corner drawing something too. Everyone was busy with some project of their own. Marinette introduced her to the teacher. She recognized the man from the community centre she went to during the summer. It was a nice place to go but she could go there only once per week. The man gave her a brief tour of the activities already done in the classroom. She smiled and observed with admiration.

“What kind of art do you do?” The art teacher asked the new student.

“I draw and paint.” She replied quietly with a shrug. “In the community centre.”

“Oh I remember you Hannah, you got in this school? Very nice!” The man smiled widely. “What would you like to do today?”

Hannah asked for paper and pencils and the teacher happily provided. She was not able to describe the project she wanted to do except that was something about a car.

Half an hour later the teacher stood next to Hannah and admired her work quietly. It was a design of a car. Outside and inside. Few details were elaborated, others were merely sketched. The art teacher was satisfied. Marinette sneaked up to the girl and noticed the car. She returned to her designs.

“You like designing like Marinette?” The teacher asked to start a conversation.

“Marinette designs too?” She asked quietly and turned to the girl.

“I design clothes.” Marinette walked over. “I won one competition and designed glasses for Jagged Stone and his latest album cover.” She could not help herself but show off a little with her success.

“I wanted to design cars.” The girl started thoughtfully. “There was a competition. Students from the whole country participated. I won.” But the girl did not look happy at all as she stuttered out her explanation. “The award was to go to Pininfarina studio.” She sighed. “The war started. I never went.” She finished and continued to draw one detail on the car. She ignored the way students and the teacher looked at her, she ignore them entirely, she did not want to be marked as someone different than them, she wanted to be one of them, she wanted to belong. But she felt that after what she said she was marked. So she withdrew into herself and continued to work on her sketch.

Marinette stood there for a few moments before she decided to retreat to her place. What could she possibly say to the girl to make her feel better. She had no idea if they had such competitions in France and if Hannah had any real chance to win it.

The teacher observed the girl and the way she worked. He remembered the paintings she did in the therapy sessions he held in the community centre. The idea was that the children express themselves through drawings and paintings, they were supposed to visualise their fears, memories and happy moments, to paint how they felt like. He knew this behaviour and attitude. It was a bad time to ask her anything. Perhaps next week.

“Does she still design?” The teacher asked Marinette because it was clear to him that Hannah avoided further conversation. He expected that the girls connected over their mutual interest.

“I did not see any supplies to do that at her home yesterday.” She replied quietly. “I think she is a refugee, she has almost nothing.” Marinette was not sure if it was up to her to share the last bit of information, but they always revealed more secrets in the art class than anywhere else.

That, however, was not a new piece of information for the teacher. He met Hannah before and the girl herself explained a lot about her history to the teacher. She already trusted Marinette with some information before, she did not expect that others in the room would be paying any attention to any conversation. Rose who sat closest to Hannah was listening to some loud music.

The teacher went away and returned with a few sketchbooks and a package of pencils.

“Hannah?” The teacher spoke quietly. “I have here a few abandoned sketchbooks and a package of pencils. Please take them to sketch whenever you want.”

Hannah smiled gratefully and observed the sketchbooks. Each of them was used, but less than half of the papers were ripped away which left her more than enough papers to do whatever her imagination let her.

“Thank you!” She beamed. “But I will take only one.”

“Let me know when you need anything, please?” The teacher urged quietly not to disturb other students in the room. But it was quiet and everyone save Rose (who had headphones on and was listening to Kitty Section music) heard the whole exchange.

Marinette agreed with the girls to meet that afternoon and just hung out outside for a while. They invited Hannah but she excused herself. She had to pick up her brothers and stay at home. The girls understood. Alya was often taken with babysitting her little sisters and Marinette was taking care of Manon from time to time. Hannah smiled back. She was expected to collect her brothers and bring them home and prepare some food each day. It was always, all the time, the only time she was away from her brothers was in school. She loved her siblings, but not that much. Perhaps she could bring her brothers along? But it was a girls hanging out, no boys invited. What was she to do?

Hannah picked up her brothers and went home, she had homework and a lot of the other things to do. But she was well aware that the girls from her class were meeting that afternoon. Perhaps she could talk to her father and he just might let her go for once.

Alix was on her rollers, Marinette brought some pastries while Juleka and Rose brought juice and fruits. Mylenne and Alya were running late as both of them took a walk through the park with their respective boyfriends before they joined the girls.

“It is nice to see you and Adrien get along.” Rose smiled to Marinette. Juleka smiled too.

“He is with Kagami now.” Marinette sighed.

“Kagami had an ice cream with Adrien and left for Japan.” Alix cut in as she circled around the girls.

“It is not like that, they went out together a few more times.” Marinette defended although she did not know why.

“And how do you know?” Alix teased Marinette for her stalkerish nature.

“He invited me … and Luka too. A few times.” Marinette muttered, she glanced towards Juleka.

“You see, he still likes you.” Rose cooed.

“Yeah, he likes me. As a friend. Besides they went out together on their own, I’m sure.” Marinette deflated.

“You will be okay.” Juleka muttered.

“Besides, you have Luka now?” Alix cut in again.

Marinette groaned.

“Really, what is between you and Luka? Are you two together?” Rose piped in.

“He is driving her around on his bicycle.” Juleka answered for her flustered friend.

“They are just delivering for her bakery.” Alix teased.

“He is interested in you.” Juleka smirked.

“Yes, I know. And he is nice, and we shared an ice cream and he makes me feel … nice.” Marinette groaned after that. Why was that just not enough? Why could not she be happy with just that? Why could not she forget about that boy with blonde hair and warm green eyes?

“But?” Juleka muttered. She knew from her brother that there was a but.

“But?” Rose asked Juleka. “Maybe we should organize another operation secret garden with a romantic ride by the Seine and roses thrown at you so that Marinette can fall in love?”

“But he is not Adrien.” Alix teased. Marinette clenched her fists.

“And he knows it.” Juleka muttered.

“He knows?” Rose screamed at Marinette.

“Yes, I confessed my love for Adrien in that video we sent him and he never saw, Luka saw me when I did it.” Marinette admitted.

“Why you never told us?” Rose piped back as if she slightly resented that.

“There was nothing to tell, Adrien never saw the video.” Marinette shrugged. “Luka knows and he is giving me the time to move on.” Weather or not she was capable of moving on and if it would be Luka or another boy with blonde hair and green eyes who she was thinking about in the evening was another issue that she was not about to admit.

“I am telling you girl, you should just confess to Adrien.” Alya said instead of greeting.

“I told you a hundred times already Alya. I can’t do that now, Adrien is with Kagami. I can’t steal her boyfriend while she is in Japan. She is my friend.” Marinette spoke quickly and quietly as she recited the same reply over the whole summer.

“Well then you should get together with Luka if that is how the things are set.” Alya was not giving up.

“I can’t just switch to Luka and be his girlfriend like that.” Marinette clapped her hands.

“Like that” Alya retorted. “How many weeks have passed? More than a month?”

“That would be six weeks.” Mylenne who arrived at the same time as Alya cut in. “But Marinette might need more time to just forget about him and move on.”

“Adrien did join us from time to time during the summer, she saw him.” Rose exclaimed.

“It is not like that.” Marinette sighed as she looked around. All around the city there were giant posters of Adrien. There were posters in her room. It was not like when she saw him in person, far from it, but it was not as if she could forget about the boy.

“Then how is it?” Alya demanded. She had invested herself a lot in connecting the sunshine boy and her clumsy best friend.

Marinette got the miracle box and lost Master Fu. She had responsibilities. The truth was she lost more sleep while she was learning how to be a guardian and feeling sorry for her mistakes and losing Master Fu than while thinking about boys, all three combined. And that was when Tikki suggested to just step on the ball and let her heart get a break from getting broken.

“Perhaps I am just not ready to have a boyfriend yet. Perhaps I should just treat them all as friends.” Marinette squeezed the words out from her very soul. She was determined to keep it that was at least until she felt a little better about herself.

“But” Mylenne started.

“No buts.” Marinette cut her off. “Yes I want to be more than friends but I am obviously not ready for that.” Not to mention that obviously at least one of her potential relationships resulted in the end of the world, but she could not tell them that.

“I had the impression that you really wanted ...” Alya cut in.

“No Alya, your impressions are wrong.” Marinette brushed her off a bit more harshly than she intended, but the force was not at all caused by the current discussion, it was far more a consequence of Alya’s relation to Lila.

“Look who’s talking.” Alya continued. “Your first impression of Adrien? And the next day you were in love.” She teased. “But at least you improved there, your bad first impression of Lila still lingers.”

“She got me expelled.” Marinette protested. She could see the rest of the girls agreed. They made a deal not to force Marinette to socialize with Lila nor to make amends, they knew Marinette was the one who would offer a hand for peace, she did it with Chloe.

“But now you find Hannah so nice and she is obviously bad news for our class.” Alya continued undeterred by Marinette’s protest.

“What?” Marinette screamed.

“How?” Juleka muttered while Rose supported the claim.

“Why?” Alix demanded.

“Well, none of you were there, but Lila told me ...” Alya was talking but Marinette felt her brain was swelling. She was right, Lila was targeting Hannah. It was as clear as a day. Alya was explaining some elaborate conspiracy theory.

“She wants to be a designer too, she also won some competition, just like Marinette.” Alix grinned, she overheard the conversation during the art class.

“You see, Marinette, she wants to steal everything you have, she wants to be a designer, just like you, she is after Adrien, just like you ...” Alya was talking.

“She is not after Adrien.” Marinette protested although she was not exactly sure that was true.

“Soon, before you know it, Hannah will steal all your friends and you will have nobody, you will be all alone and she will be there to laugh at you.” Alya continued her speech.

Marinette glared at her best friend before her face assumed the expression of pity. She knew exactly who put those words in Alya’s mouth. Her strong, independent and confident best friend was now just a puppet and Lila was pulling the strings.

Marinette blamed herself, so often she had to escape her meetings with Alya and run away to transform to Ladybug and fight the akuma, she was tired from studying the miracle box, she had too many worries in her head to be able to stay close to her best friend, and Lila jumped to the opportunity. But Lila was no friend, she merely gave away that false first impression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, Alya was not in the art room when Hannah spoke to the teacher and imagine Rose heard what happened from others although she has headphones.  
> The next chapter is mostly about Adrien and girl problems.


	10. Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien finally clarifies some stuff with Nino and contemplates different girls in his life and decides to help one of them just because he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More misunderstandings resolved :)  
> And some are intentionally left unresolved in the end

Gifts

Adrien had fun time with Nino, Ivan, Juleka and Mylenne in the music room. He was surprised that Rose was not there, but he was explained that although the girl was in fact writing text for music, she decided not to join the literature art group in the library nor the music group with the larger part of her band, but a visual art group where she apparently enjoyed more freedom.

“So dude, Kagami is your girlfriend now?” Nino asked Adrien not so subtly and rather obviously instructed by Alya to do so. They finished their music session and were walking towards the lockers followed by girls who could not help but eavesdrop once they heard the question Nino asked. They were the last students left in school as they missed the final bell due to the music (or noise) they were producing at the time.

“I don’t know yet.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s complicated.”

“Why? Because she left for Japan?” Nino inquired reluctantly, the boy was not so eager to pry in his best friends love life, but he was instructed by his girlfriend, okay. They were collecting their stuff from lockers.

“No, it is not that.” The blonde model shut the door to his locker a bit more loudly than he wanted. “Besides she returns this week.”

“Okay, so you are getting back together then?” Nino concluded awkwardly and just wanted some kind of confirmation to be able to have something to say to Alya.

“I guess you could see it that way.” Adrien shrugged. Nino felt guilty for asking his friend like that, his best bro was obviously not happy with this conversation.

“Listen, the girls are having their girls hang out, are you up to some online gaming?” Nino quickly changed the subject.

“Nope, photo shoot, sorry.” Adrien shook his head.

“Well I have Chris duty today until after dinner anyway.” Nino shrugged.

“I’d really prefer a gaming session.” The model boy added apologetically. “At least I am having the shoot alone today.”

“What do you mean? ” Nino inquired “I thought you preferred to have photo shoots with Lila.”

“What?” Adrien practically shouted. “No! Never!” Then he schooled himself. “I do not like the photo shoots with Lila, I have to do it though, she is my father’s muse, not mine.” The boy clarified.

Nino adjusted his red hat nervously.

“Sorry dude, I just thought … well in fact, Lila said ...” Nino fiddled with his cap.

Adrien glared back, then sighed, then shook his head, then looked again sadly.

“I’m just sorry dude.” Nino concluded.

The car was already waiting in front of school and Adrien waved goodbye to Nino, Ivan, Mylenne, Juleka and Rose (the last one waited in front of school for Juleka).

“All that talk about your girlfriends made me hungry.” Plagg complained as soon as he could.

“Lila is not my girlfriend and you know it.” Adrien glared at his kwami and did not even begin to reach for the cheese.

Plagg gulped, the tiny god of destruction managed to annoy his chosen so much that even his endless source of smelly cheese was suddenly endangered. But perhaps it was worth it. Plagg never liked the deal Adrien made with the devil. He would have preferred different solutions and would not even mind transforming for any of them.

“And Kagami is?” The tiny black cat continued.

“I don’t know yet, Plagg. It doesn’t feel that way.” Adrien sighed. “I always imagined it differently, having a girlfriend, going on dates, being in love, … I always imagined it more intense, more romantic, more … and I should feel differently when I am on a date with her, but I don’t. It is just nice, it is nice, I mean I like her, I like spending time with her.” The boy was talking to himself now and even absent mindedly produced a triangle of cheese for his forever hungry kwami.

“It is not the same as I feel when I am near Ladybug.” The boy sighed and gave the cheese to Plagg. They stopped at the mansion, he had half an hour before he had to go for the photo shoot, they needed the sun really low.

That afternoon Adrien located the books with audio exercises that helped him to pronounce words correctly when he was a child. He let out a tear or two when he remembered his mother and how they practised together. They also had a trained professional who did the exercises with him, but his mother always repeated a few with him on her own. He had a photo shoot that afternoon and asked his bodyguard to start early. He took the books and stopped in front of the building he visited yesterday. His bodyguard insisted to follow him inside. Adrien climbed all the way up. The stairs and the corridors were full of people. They spoke in different languages, he understood non of them, some were chatting, other were arguing, loudly, children screamed and whined. The building was full of noise. His bodyguard frowned, grunted and seemed displeased, his eyes lingered on people they passed and he listened to the spoken words. The man obviously knew where he was ans who these people were.

Adrien knocked on the door. One of the brothers opened the door, greeted with a smile anc called for his sister while he urged the two to enter.

“Hi Hannah.” The boy greeted sheepishly. “I found these in my room. You can keep them for as long as you need them.”

The girl stared at the books. She frowned until she recognized the first one. Then she smiled.

“Oh Adrien. Thank you so much.” She was truly touched by what he did. “Please enter. I can make you something.” She took a step back but then she noticed the huge man behind his back and her eyes were wide and slightly scared.

“This is my bodyguard.” Adrien introduced the large man.

“Bodyguard?” She asked incredulously. She was not certain if the word could mean something else.

“Yeah. Sorry, I can’t come in. Photo shoot. Some other time?” The boy asked with a warm smile. Hannah nodded, but inside she was crumbling.

She said her greeting with a sad smile and a nod to the large man. Adrien left with a strange feeling in his gut. He walked out from the building next to his bodyguard. He looked at the large man as they approached the car. The large man was crying.

Hannah was happy about the books, but the pang of pain spoiled her joy. She was sad. Because her classmate was too scared to go to her home without a bodyguard.

Adrien was expected to play the piano after dinner, but the moment Nathalie left the boy played one of his practices on the phone, sent a message to Nino from his computer and logged into his game. It took about ten seconds for Nino to respond. They played and talked until Nino got a message from Alya about an akuma attack.

Chat Noir saw Ladybug before they found an akuma. She smiled at him widely when she noticed him.

“Good evening, M.. Ladybug.” Chat Noir grinned back. She made his heart flutter, she made him breathe faster and he knew he was in love. He just knew. But she told him there was another boy, then she switched to they can’t be together (which fist made him happy because she did not mention the boy nor the absence of her feelings, and then it made him sad because that meant even if she did return his feelings, she would not consider a romantic relationship with him just because they were superheroes).

“Good evening Chat.” She returned fondly. There he was, her partner and her friend. And even if she felt something more for him (which she was not, she could not, it would lead to a disaster) she would never act on it, she could forget about her love life for a while and just concentrate on the akuma, that was how she survived the summer and Tikki praised her for her methods.

The akuma was composed of two people tied together by their backs. They shot rope that would tie two persons together. They were mostly couples in their evening romantic walks, but sometimes it was just two random strangers who got tied up together.

“We are Coupler!” Akuma shouted.”We will make couples from all of you singles out there.”

“Don’t you think some people prefer to stay single?” Chat Noir taunted as he deflected one piece of rope from two random persons in the street who then escaped to a building nearby.

“They all told us that we can’t be single, that we are too old for that, that we should be a couple.” The akuma shouted while they threw ropes towards Chat Noir.

“That sounds familiar.” Ladybug muttered loud enough that Chat could hear it. He turned towards her. She realized her mistake, she did not want to hurt him nor to shame him for the crush he used to have on her. His face and his smile fell and he was obviously distracted and saddened.

“Sorry, Chat, I didn’t mean ...” Ladybug jumped towards him. And that was when a piece of rope wrapped around both of them.

“There, I finally made a couple from you two.” The akuma celebrated. Unfortunately, superheroes noticed that many civilians around them cheered too.

“This must be a dream come true for you Chat Noir.” The akuma taunted as they approached closer.

“Sorry Bug.” Chat muttered.

“It is okay Chaton, I should not have said that.” She whispered.

“But you think that.” He shook his head sadly.

“No, no Chat, this is not about you, it is … it is about my civilian life and this is not the time.” She whispered as she tried to squeeze herself out from the magical rope that only seem to hold them together tighter.

“And I am sure this is something you Ladybug were wishing for although you pretended otherwise.” The akuma taunted while violet mask glowed on their head(s).

To the utter surprise of Chat Noir, Ladybug blushed. He was too close not to see it.

“Go and take their miraculous.” Hawk Moth instructed the akuma from his lair.

“The akuma must be in the clothes that connects them.” She whispered as she watched the akuma, she refused to look at her partner while she was blushing like that.

“Can you destroy the rope without injuring us?” Ladybug whispered.

“Can you call your lucky charm like this?” He whispered back.

The akuma was defeated within a minute. A couple stood there dazed and confused.

“I don’t understand what happened.” The man said.

“We got akumatized, that’s what happened.” The woman sighed.

“But we were having our dinner date.” The man shrugged.

“And we were both annoyed because our friends and family made us go for a date and kept pestering us over the phone on how it was going.” She reminded the man.

“Oh yes, I remember. It was awful.” The man replied. “Look, you are a nice person and my friend, but I just got divorced and I think this was too soon for me, my life is too complicated as it is.”

“And my boyfriend of ten years moved out only a month ago, I do not need another relationship right now.” She sighed. “Besides, I wanted to work on my career, that is why he left anyway.”

“Yeah, why don’t we just make a deal to hang out from time to time, no dates no romance?” The man offered his hand and she shook it.

“Looks like they don’t need us to help them.” Ladybug whispered. Chat agreed. They bumped their fists and left.

Wednesday morning was rainy. Marinette was barely on time for school. She ran through the school door when she noticed Chloe latched onto Adrien in her usual greeting. Lila was on the other side of the hall and enjoyed her usual dose of attention.

Adrien pulled Chloe along as he went towards the locker room. Chloe finally switched her attention onto Sabrina for some homework.

Marinette ran towards the locker room. She found Hannah there. She was hugging a few books and stared in the empty space before her unaware of anything that was going on around her.

“What is wrong?” Marinette asked quietly after the usual morning greeting.

“You can visit me. It is safe. It is not dangerous. Those people have nothing. But they are not dangerous. Okay. We are not dangerous.” The girl was almost crying.

“What happened? Did anyone ...” Marinette trailed off.

Adrien heard the conversation from the other side of the locker room and sneaked over.

“Adrien came with bodyguard to visit me yesterday.” The girl was not sure how to phrase the sentence and stopped between words a few times. “He is afraid of me.”

“No.” Marinette smiled. “He is not allowed to go around without his bodyguard. And I came with my parents because I wanted to bring you pastry and they sort of tagged along. We are not afraid of you.”

Hannah understood the meaning although she did not understand all the words. She smiled back.

“You are not scared of me?” She asked quietly.

“No” Marinette waved her head.

“We are not afraid of you.” Adrien whispered from his spot.

Hannah visibly shuddered from the surprise.

“Sorry to scare you.” The boy smiled gently.

Marinette was blushing. Hannah was shivering. The boy scratched the back of his neck.

“Were the books okay?” He asked finally.

Hannah nodded. Marinette looked between the two, confused.

“Adrien brought me books I wanted from the library. I can return these.” Hannah smiled. “Actually we should returned them. You borrowed three books. For me. Thank you.”

“Your French is getting better and better.” Marinette smiled.

“Thank you.” Hannah returned. She knew written French and she trained herself to read, but she only started to practice the real conversations once she started going to school.

The three of them went to the class together. Adrien explained that Hannah could keep the books because he did not need them any more. Hannah was still finding words to express her gratitude to Adrien for the very nice present she got from him when they entered the classroom.

“Hi dude, What’s up?” Nino greeted his best bro.

“Hannah is just really grateful for a little gift I brought to her home yesterday.” Adrien spoke with a huge grin. The words somehow cut through the classroom. Alya and Nino stared at Adrien. The girls took their seats with smiles and greetings for their classmates. Lila glared at both of them, she wanted to scratch the skin off the girl who sat just in front of her. Her usual pony tail of her messy and curly (because of the wet weather) brown hair was especially irritating that morning. But she glared for a few seconds too long, because half the class noticed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just something I thing Adrien would do.  
> The next chapter will deal with plenty of wrong conclusions and one of the things Hannah lied about (and why).


	11. Getting Into Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien learn about one thing Hannah lied about (not to them).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some bashing of principal Damocles, if you squint, and Ms Bustier too, although she is not even mentioned.

Getting into trouble

“What was that?” Alya mouthed first to Adrien (who turned forward towards the teacher with a smug smile), then to Nino (who shrugged) and then to Marinette who mouthed back ‘later’ (but never explained). Chloe was trying to get Adrien’s attention, but the boy stared at a random point in front of him with a smug smile and did not react to anybody. Perhaps he was aware what kind of commotion he just initiated, perhaps he enjoyed the way Lila was hyperventilating in the back row, perhaps he felt Chloe shift in her seat, but he produced no reaction. Marinette noticed the strange reaction of her classmates, she was arranging her things on the desk when it finally occurred to her why, what Adrien said and the way he said it, of course everyone misinterpreted it, she almost laughed, she looked at the blonde hair in front of her and smiled gently.

That morning they had English. Hannah had no issues with the language, she finally understood ... until the teacher started to clarify the problem in French. She raised her hand and asked for clarification in English. She asked the question in English. She picked up her accent from watching documentaries so she sounded rather good. The teacher just stared back confused. Then she repeated the instructions.

“You are expected to write a few sentences about your past, then about your present and then about your future and use as many different tenses as possible.” The teacher repeated the instructions. Hannah smiled gratefully and thanked the teacher.

This time she produced a few pages of text easily. She signed her sheet and handed it over to Marinette who passed all the papers forward to Adrien for the teacher to collect.

After that, the teacher explained about the English literature assignment and what they were supposed to do. This time the teacher insisted on explaining everything in English and Hannah was happy. Most of the students had no issues with that, they either understood or relied on their classmates to help them with a detail or ten.

Lila glared at Hannah, not because she did not understand what the teacher was explaining, not because French was already her second language and English was the third so she understandably had issues, not because her classmates would not help her, heck she could easily make a few of them do the assignments for her, it was because that new girl, it was her who insisted that the English class is held in … well … English. How dare she?

The teacher was distributing the English literature assignment. Each of them got to pull a piece of paper from a hat to determine which book to study. The deadline was in one month which left them plenty of time to do it. But Lila just pulled her paper and buried her anger while other people were watching her.

“She prevented the teacher from giving us proper instructions.” Lila whined during the break to anyone who would listen. Rose consoled the offended Italian while Juleka promised to help with the assignment.

The akuma alert rang through the school. That meant that the akuma was inside the school. The students dispersed. Hannah stood in the middle of the wide hallway. She had no idea where was one supposed to hide from an akuma. She knew about shelters and basements, she spent a year in basements.

During her months in Paris, she would simply hide with her brothers to a building nearby and wait for it to pass, or run back home. But in most of the cases, she was already home or in the community centre and there was no need to go anywhere. She finally decided to try the library which was on the other side of the school building.

“Hey” someone whisper shouted from her back. She turned around. There was a boy dressed in black catsuit, complete with ears and tail. She saw Chat Noir before, but only on blurry videos on her phone and a few photos on her computer. This was the first time she saw the hero in person.

“Chat Noir.” She whispered excitedly and ducked down close to the floor. Because if he was there, then the danger was nearby and she knew what to do.

“You should hide.” He whispered when he reached her. She considered herself hidden already.

“I was going to the library.” She replied with a grin and sneaked towards her target with practice. Chat Noir stared at the way she crawled close to the floor while she kept her bag on her back. She resembled a cat. A kitten perhaps because she was so much shorter than the hero.

“Is the library safe?” She asked on her way. She forgot that the akuma might be there.

“I will check for you.” Chat offered.

Ladybug swung in just just in front of the library door and rolled inside. Chat dragged Hannah along to the safety of the library.

“Well hello My Lady.” Chat greeted. “Is it safe to leave a civilian in here.” The akuma attack from the last night encouraged him to try and use the nickname again.

“Please go and hide.” Ladybug told Hannah and motioned towards rows of books. Nobody had to tell her twice. The two heroes exchanged the information about the akuma. Ladybug called her lucky charm and got a spotted book. Then she tore out a leaf and made a paper plane. They stuck some ink cartridges they found in the desk and ran out to deal with the akuma.

Hannah found a desk in the back and looked for her book for the English assignment. She was already reading and started making notes when the signal that the akuma alert was withdrawn sounded through the school five minutes later.

Hannah took the book and found the librarian who was hiding under her desk. She managed to return the books for Marinette and one for herself and borrow the one she needed for her English assignment. The librarian studied the girl intently. Hannah felt her eyes on her and hunched her shoulders a little.

Marinette burst into the library. Librarian was less than thrilled by her manners and gave her a warning look before she turned back to Hannah. But Marinette took it all with a smile. She was obviously looking for Hannah and was relieved to find the girl safe and sound. The two of them exchanged greetings and Marinette went to look for her English book when Adrien rain inside. The librarian was not amused by the second student who burst in. Mostly because the woman flinched at every sudden move, especially after an akuma attack in the same school.

“You okay?” The boy asked. Hannah nodded.

“Marinette is looking for a book.” She pointed behind her.

“Oh I could help her and find my own in the process.” The boy disappeared in the back.

The librarian kept looking at the girl before her.

“You are not French?” The librarian asked in a no nonsense kind of way.

“I am not a citizen of France.” Hannah shook her head.

“When have you moved over here?” She continued.

“Few months ago.” Hannah smiled warily. It was exactly two months and twenty one days, but who counted.

Marinette just located her book that was on the top shelf and unreachable. Therefore she needed the ladder. She located the ladder and was climbing when Adrien startled her. She fell. He caught her. She blushed. He smiled and let her stand on her own two feet. She climbed back. He was looking for his book and noticed it on the same shelf but a metre away from Marinette’s book. He decided the ladder was close enough and climbed up after her. Both of them almost tumbled down. In the end, two books were on the floor, the ladder was on the floor. And two teenagers were hanging off from a bookshelf that was fortunately screwed into the wall. They carefully climbed down the shelves as if they were using it as the ladder. Adrien had practice, he had the climbing wall in his room, but he wondered why usually clumsy Marinette safely climbed down a few metres of bookshelves.

They picked up their books, fixed the ladder and walked back to the librarian in silence. The librarian was still interrogating the new girl.

“I have checked your data against the documents I got from the ministry and from the city shelter. They don’t match. How old are you?” The librarian demanded.

“Thirteen.” The girl replied timidly. The truth was that she was twelve. She was not yet thirteen. But she wanted to take the high school exam, so she lied in one application inspired by her mother who congratulated her on her birthday that she was a difficult teenager now because she entered her thirteenth year. For whatever that was supposed to mean. Because Hannah knew she was not a difficult teenager. At least not yet. Save the fact that she wanted to skip a year or two in school, she started the school early in her country.

The woman scrolled through the database in her computer.

“You are twelve.” She replied calmly.

“Almost thirteen.” Hannah negotiated.

“You just had your birthday six weeks ago whichever year you were actually born.” The woman replied calmly.

Her two classmates stood frozen behind her.

“How did you get in this school?” The librarian raised her eyebrows.

“My science scores were excellent.” Hannah replied proudly. She knew how to say that with confidence.

“How excellent?” The librarian raised her eyebrows.

“I got the maximum number of points.” She shrugged. “And I took the test for high school.”

“That is why you have given wrong year of birth to the ministry.” The librarian concluded. “Well if you got here based on the ministry evaluation tests, then I have nothing against you.” The woman smiled at the terrified girl.

Hannah let out a breath, slowly, this danger had passed, apparently. She could not believe her luck when principal Damocles took her without verifying her data, this was to be expected, of course someone validated her inputs against databases that are commonly available to the school staff.

Adrien stared at the girl before him. Hannah was twelve? She was short and, frankly, could easily pass as a boy, she had absolutely no features on her body that would define her as a girl. Puberty did not touch her yet, such girls often modelled clothes for both boys and girls, he remembered a few of them. The only feature that showed that she was a girl was her hair tied up in a messy pony tail, but even that was unreliable. Yes, twelve, he believed that was her real age. That meant she lied to the librarian at first, but if her data was mixed up, maybe she was just covering up?

Marinette frowned. So this girl lied to the librarian about her age. Maybe it was just a mistake? People in different countries expressed their age differently. On the other hand, excellent score in a science test was obviously true, she had demonstrated her knowledge rather clearly. She looked at Adrien and mouthed ‘Did she lie?’. The boy knew how much Marinette hated liars, and he did not want her to hate Hannah. He just shrugged. She shrugged back. They both understood she lied, but not why. It was a stupid lie anyway.

Hannah took her book and only then noticed her two classmates. She was scared. How much have they heard. Do they know she is a liar now? She lied about her age only to be able to take the exam she wanted, it was not the first lie she had to make to be able to survive this long.

“You took that ministry tests? I was taking them too.” Adrien smiled, he was not about to judge her before he knew the rest of her story and he expected there was a lot to it.

Hannah nodded and smiled, perhaps her classmates did not hate her for her lie, or they did not hear that. She looked at Marinette expectantly, she wanted some kind of approval or understanding.

“You should team up with Max in the science and technology workshop.” Marinette smiled, she wanted to give this girl a chance, no prejudice, no jumping to conclusions.

“Max Kante?” Hannah asked surprised by her two classmates.

“Yes, we have a tech workshop here in the afternoon, please come and join us.” The librarian adjusted her glasses.

“We are mostly playing video games.” Adrien winked.

Hannah looked at the boy warily. She had few opportunities to play simple games on her phone. They had a game room in the community centre, but she considered that a waste of time because that was her only opportunity to learn outside of her new home.

“Marinette here is an expert. She could teach you a few tricks.” Adrien grinned and threw an arm around his blushing classmate.

“Well, let me register those books. I believe you have a class to go to now.” The librarian scanned the barcodes and sent them on their way.

The three of them were slightly late. But that was okay. There was an akuma attack in the school. Their math teacher started talking to entertain a few students who were already in the classroom.

“Sorry we are late, Monsieur Poincare.” Adrien greeted while all three of them took their seats.

“Thank you for joining us. We are trying to remember what we learned the last school year.” The teacher continued to go through the items quickly. “You can pick up your worksheets now and work on them until lunch. You can ask if you do not understand anything. If you do not solve them until lunch, you can have them for homework.” The teacher was obviously rather relaxed about his review exam.

Alya and Nino were there, Max and Kim too. Alix appeared with Mylenne, Juleka and Rose. Soon the class was almost complete. By lunch break, the only one missing was Lila.

Hannah was the first one to get on her feet. She walked down the stairs and carried her sheets proudly. Everyone expected she was going to ask how to solve a particular problem. But she just handed over her worksheet.

“Mademoiselle?” The teacher called after she turned around and started to walk away.

Hannah stopped and turned back to the teacher.

“Yes?” She asked warily.

“What is your name?” The teacher asked with a gentle smile.

“Hannah” She replied quietly.

“You forgot to write your name here.” The teacher smiled. She quickly walked back and wrote her name on the paper.

“Thank you.” The teacher smiled and flipped through the pages. The pages were filled with heat handwriting.

Few minutes later Max paraded down the stairs and handed over his worksheets. He made sure he signed them before he climbed back. He fixed his glasses as he looked at the new girl.

“I bet she got her answers wrong.” Kim nudged Alix.

“I bet she got her answers better than Max.” Alix returned. And the bet was on.

The bell sounded as Adrien jumped to his feet and handed over his assignment. Alix followed just after him. Marinette raised her hand to notify she would like just five more minutes. She did not expect to have the time for this additional homework. The rest of the class decided to finish the tasks as homework and hand them over later.

“I will have you know that only two percent of students my age are able to solve those problems faster than me.” Max said proudly. “That is according to Markov’s calculations.”

Marinette blinked. Adrien furrowed his brows. If Hannah solved her problems correctly, they would have to keep her real age from Max, otherwise the boy might get akumatized into some kind of a mathematical monster instead of a gamer 3.0.

“Markov?” Hannah asked with a smile.

The robot floated out from Max’s school bag.

“Hello Hannah. My name is Markov.” The robot recited politely.

“You are a robot?” The girl grinned happily.

“He is also a person. He has artificial intelligence. He is able to solve problems on his own.” Max stated proudly. “I created him, but now he is able to develop himself on his own.”

“Wow. Fantastic.” Hannah was obviously impressed.

Lila entered the classroom after the bell as if she was waiting for the class to finish, and she was not happy. She needed, no, she wanted Max to solve her worksheet for math and not chat with the new girl about his robot.

“How are you Markov?” Hannah asked happily as she stretched out her hand towards the hovering robot as if she wanted to shake hands with him.

“Very well and how are you?” Markov replied.

“Very well. Thank you.” Hannah smiled.

Lila glared at the scene until she noticed Alya saw her, she quickly schooled her face, grabbed Alya and started to mutter something how she was worried about Max and how Hannah was about to steal Markov from the boy.

“Hey Max.” Adrien spoke. “Hannah here is a good candidate for our science and technology workshop.”

“I would agree.” Max adjusted his glasses as he replied to Adrien but looked at Hannah.

“You can play games or discuss science.” Marinette added.

“Would you like to join us?” Max asked.

“I do. I mean. I want. Yes.” Hannah smiled.

The four of them left the classroom and chatted about the workshop while they were eating their lunch on a bench in one of the school hallways. Hannah was very excited about Markov, especially when the tiny robot started to form sentences in her own language.

The tech activities in the library have proven to be a gamer reunion. Hannah observed how they played, but she never held a gaming console in her hands before. She was given a try but she failed, she lost each game very quickly, Marinette let her at least make a few moves before everyone else groaned to cut it out and let someone else play. The class president tried to give the new girl more chance and begged, but finally she had to relent and kill her player. Hannah smiled and gave the console to Max. Then she observed a real fight. Marinette won again. Then Adrien took Max’s place and the boy explained how he created the game.

Hannah asked about the programming languages and algorithmics solutions, she asked about computing and graphic processor units. She spoke about binary and hexadecimal system conversions. Her French was bad, but she did not care, she was so engrossed with technology that she did not even notice that she was having a conversation with Markov, while Max retreated to have an argument with Alix about how should one compute someone’s speed while racing on a curved path. The two teenagers were in the middle of a heated debate about the radius of the curve and the width of a lane when the bell announced the end of the school day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not want to repeat the 'if you and I know the truth, does it really matter?' scene exactly, but it is there, sort of.  
> Why would Adrien and MArinette give Hannah the benefit of the doubt? They are biased to have more faith in her, and adult accepted her and it is not as if they both do not lie from time to time (identities).


	12. Friendly Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien has fencing with Kagami and Marinette spends more time with Hannah.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments!   
> There are major differences between why and how different people lied here, the question is how different characters see and accept those differences.

Friendly competition

Hannah greeted everyone and told them she had to pick up her brothers from school. That was the first time the rest of the class learned that she had brothers. Many of them were confused.

“But Lila said ...” Kim and Max protested, but they silenced themselves when Adrien and Marinette spoke almost in unison.

“Send greetings to Robbie and Eddie.” Adrien smiled. “And tell them I told them to exercise French with you.” Adrien left for fencing with a greeting to all his gamer buddies.

“Tell them I will bring the pastries later.” Marinette smiled. Alya nudged her and raised her eyebrows. “You’ll meet them.” Marinette told Alya and turned back to the console.

Students exchanged several confused glances and shrugs. Alya was typing on her phone. The rest of the group chatted and played games until the librarian sent them away to close for the day.

Adrien found Kagami ready for the fencing practice. She greeted him with a warm smile and “You are late.”

“Hi Kagami. Nice to see you back from Japan. How was it?” The boy asked politely as he put on his own fencing gear.

“It was nice. I met my relatives. We fenced.” The girl shrugged. “We visited several temples and walked by the sea.”

“Sounds nice.” Adrien beamed.

“What is new in Paris?” Kagami inquired.

“Nothing much.” The boy shrugged. “Different akuma each day.”

“How is school?” The girl asked further.

“There is a new girl in my class.” Adrien beamed with joy.

Kagami smiled weirdly and frowned at the same time.

“What is she like?” She asked, but then she changed her mind. “Never mind. We have fencing practice to go to.”

“Yeah. I was getting a bit rusty with you away.” The boy teased.

Adrien surprised Kagami with his new evasive manoeuvres, the boy also had a new trick or two on the way how to strike a point. But Kagami obviously spent her holidays on more practise. She evaded his new tricks with ease. After intensive exchange of determined but missed or evaded attacks, both of them stopped.

“I see you practised a lot.” Adrien gasped out of breath.

“Um yeah, you too.” Kagami grinned. She did not look out of breath, she looked rather composed and not tired at all.

They drank their water and exchanged a few glances before monsieur Dagencourt ordered to continue the duel.

They tried to strike and evaded the opponents attempts.

“This is so frustrating.” Kagami complained.

“What?” Adrien evaded a strike and almost scored in return, but Kagami evaded the move at a split second, the boy was not even sure how she did it.

“I’d rather be hit than have an indecisive duel.” She groaned.

“Well, I can work on that.” Adrien tried to strike, twice, with surprising new moves, but Kagami evaded all his attempts. She placed her foil defensively so Adrien had to jump back.

“Not good enough.” Kagami taunted. Adrien tried harder. He was not about to give in and let her have her victory, he trained during the summer, obviously she trained too.

The fencing practise was finished and they were free to go to the locker room, but Kagami was full of poorly contained frustration.

“I hope you did not expect me to give in to your attacks.” Adrien teased.

She turned her face away and left for her locker. Adrien shrugged and turned away to change.

The words Adrien spoke stung her like a foil. She replayed the events in her head when she tried to kiss him and he evaded, he said he was not ready yet, he was not sure if he wanted that. He was not sure the first time, he was not sure the second time they went for ice cream with his classmates, although he was nice and gentle and smiled and wiped ice cream off from her face. Then they had a few more of those friendly dates where they would meet, just the two of them or with his friends and he made no move or he actively evaded her move. She liked him. He knew that she liked him. He either wanted her or did not want her, why was he so indecisive? If he wanted Marinette or someone else, even Chloe or that Lila girl, he should just say so, she would have accepted it, well maybe she would have hard time to accept Lila, she got akumatized over her once already. She was probably really close to become akumatized after she saw the photos of Adrien and Lila from that photo shoot.

Kagami liked Marinette, they were friends, they both liked the same boy and yet Marinette let her have him. Did she hurt Marinette when she took Adrien for herself? Well, Marinette hesitated, Kagami never did that. Perhaps she did not like Adrien that much and let Kagami have him while she decided to go for Luka? Marinette did share that ice cream with Luka. Kagami did not have much time nor any opportunity to talk about it with Marinette. She assumed the other girl was okay with it. Why else would she let Kagami go after her crush.

It was Adrien who was not giving in to her advances, it was Adrien whom she had to win over. She closed her duffel bag and looked for the boy.

Adrien went to his locker bouncing on his feet, he was full of energy after the exhausting fight, or it was just his feet that wanted to run, run away from Kagami and not face the issues between them.

The boy fed his kwami and got out from his gear. He distracted himself with his phone while he waited for Kagami to appear. There were numerous messages from his classmates who asked about Hannah, how long he knew her, about her brothers and what gift had he brought to her and was he in fact in her home. The boy typed a short and generic reply that he could send to all inquires. He knew that would not be sufficient for Chloe. He ignored Lila.

“What are you smiling about?” Kagami asked when she finally appeared.

“Oh, just writing something about Hannah.” He replied absent mindedly.

“Hannah?” Kagami frowned.

“The new classmate.” Adrien smiled.

“The car is waiting for me already, I have some obligations with my mother, but can we meet tomorrow?” Kagami asked rater emotionlessly.

“Oh, we can meet tomorrow then.” The boy smiled hopefully. He wanted to spend time with his friend. “Have a walk, talk about our holidays?” He wanted to make it another friendly date, just like they used to have. He met her gaze, she smiled, there was a hint of longing and something else.

“Yes, tomorrow, we can meet in the park.” Kagami confirmed, how she wished she could just know already if they are together or not, was he her boyfriend, did he ever intended to be one, could he see her that way? She turned away and left.

Adrien took his duffel bag and walked away. He could already hear Plagg teasing him about his girlfriends, but he shook his head and smiled, his friend was back, the school was back, he had a new classmate and he was less lonely than a week ago.

Marinette went home before the library closing time.

“Hi maman, papa.” She greeted. “Today I learned that Hannah is really twelve.” She spoke in one breath. Tom was surprised but her mother simply shrugged. “She is almost two years younger than me. No wonder she has so many problems with school.”

“Does she really have other problems than her limited knowledge of French?” Sabine asked with a knowing smile.

“Um, probably no.” Marinette shrugged.

“Then it was right to put her in your class. If she would not be able to follow, they can easily move her one class below.” Sabine continued.

“That actually makes sense.” The girl shrugged.

“Why don’t you take her some pastries. Your father already has a box full of the ugly specimens. Perhaps she could help you with something while you help her with French?” Sabine proposed with an encouraging smile. There was something in her eyes and her face that showed that the woman knew how someone who struggled in a new country felt.

Marinette smiled widely. She had two review sheets, the online one for grammar and completely empty in biology. Of course she could use a little help, but she wanted to solve her problems on her own. She picked up the pastries that were deemed not for sale and took them with her. Less than ten minutes later Hannah opened the door to her with a huge welcoming smile. She did check for the presence of a bodyguard or a huge father nearby first.

The girls had fun. Hannah did try to explain how she solved one of the problems in math. She struggled in her speech, she was making many mistakes, but she also spoke more freely.

Then Marinette persuaded Hannah to work on the online worksheet for grammar. It turned out Hannah could solve a lot on her own, but there were tasks she just did not know how to start.

“You helped me with French I want to help you with science.” Hannah pushed. Apparently both girls preferred to solve their own problems, but somehow, this was more fun. Biology was something where Hannah knew more than was written in books, she probably picked it up from her parents.

Hannah’s brothers were working on their own homework at the same table and they chatted between themselves while the girls were solving their worksheets.

“How old are your brothers?” Marinette asked as she was suddenly aware she did not know.

“Nine and ten.” She replied while she pointed at the two boys. They were of the same height and build, they had the same brown hair cut in the same hairstyle (later Marinette learned that it was because Hannah cut their hair and knew how to get only one style) only the colour of their eyes was different.

“How old are you?” One of the boys blurted.

“Fourteen.” Marinette smiled.

“Hannah is twelve.” The other brother smirked.

That made both girls silent for a moment. The boy grinned, both of her brothers knew how their sister lied to get accepted to school, and not only that.

“So you are really twelve?” Marinette asked out of the blue.

“Yes.” Hannah confirmed. “I had to be thirteen to take the test for high school.” She added and looked at her classmate. It started to make sense to Marinette.

“So you cheated in your application data. Why are you in my class?” Marinette asked suddenly. It sounded far worse once she spoke than it was in her head. “I mean, you could be with younger kids and ...”

“I would be bored.” Hannah shrugged. “I started school early. Back home. I learned a lot of math and sciences and English.” The girl continued to explain herself.

“Prodigy.” One boy said half mockingly.

“Scholarship” The other boy teased.

“I learned a lot. On my own. From books.” The girl glared at her brothers. “There was not much else to do.”

“You remind me of Adrien so much.” Marinette smiled gently.

“Is he your boyfriend?” One of the boys asked.

“Sh!” Hannah shushed her brothers.

“No.” Marinette sighed dreamily. “Just a friend.” She continued with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“You want him?” Hannah asked timidly. “Sorry I did not ...”

“Yes.” Marinette admitted. “But he does not know. And he has a girlfriend. Kagami. She is a fencer.”

Hannah nodded.

“There is another boy who likes me.” Marinette added.

“Do you like him?” Hannah asked curiously.

“I don’t know. Not like that. But maybe yes. I want to try.” Marinette was lost in her thoughts.

Hannah was not sure if she heard correctly.

“What? Why?” She blurted.

Marinette asked herself why she wanted to try a relationship with Luka. Yes she liked him, but not the same way as Adrien, then again it was not the same way she liked Nino, for example, who was definitely her friend. She had no clue what she felt for Luka. Perhaps it was a bad idea to become his girlfriend while she was not sure how she felt.

“I don’t know.” She muttered. “It’s complicated.” She added.

Hannah nodded, she agreed, it was complicated, all that falling in love stuff was complicated and looked rather like an unnecessary waste of time.

“I will never have a boyfriend.” The girl exclaimed. “I will be a scientist.” (Bear in mind that Hannah is not a teenager yet, did not even start with puberty and had other problems than boys in her life, these things change).

“That is not the way it works.” Marinette frowned.

“It will work that way for me.” Hannah smiled confidently.

Marinette was surprised by the girl. Again.

Hannah resumed typing solutions into her worksheet while Marinette was busy contemplating what she just heard. She could easily say (at least to herself) that she was too busy being Ladybug and Guardian to have the time and the energy to fall in love, especially since there are secrets she was expected to keep. She looked at that determined girl by her side. Hannah was clever, she was good at science and math, perhaps Marinette should take on her example. She contemplated that for a while (and her decision to do so only lasted until she saw the next photo of Adrien when she made herself think of Luka and an image of Chat passed through her mind and she groaned and pulled her pigtails and complained to Tikki about her treacherous heart).

Hannah reached the end of her worksheet and started to frantically turn the pages in the book. There were plenty of problems left unsolved, and she needed help. Marinette pointed to the page where one of the rules was explained, but Hannah still struggled on what to write. They solved the problems together and then Marinette went home. The whole was home she quietly discussed with Tikki if it was wise to put her love life on hold, and if she solved the grammar worksheet correctly. Tikki was positive and encouraging as usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would Marinette lie about her age to get an internship at Gabriel early?  
> Are Adrien and Marinette going to adopt Hannah?  
> (Not literally, she has a family)


	13. Chemistry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe has a jealous reaction in chemistry class (pun intended).  
> And Hannah tries to make friends with Lila.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannah is described as a clever girl (and she is) but she is also naive and young and in a situation that seems desperate, but she has been through worse so she needs a bit more than a petty fight to get akumatized.

Chemistry

Thursday morning found Marinette and Hannah sneaking into the classroom together. Lila was putting up a show, as per usual. This time she was talking about some charity event that she was about to attend that particular weekend at some fancy location with Prince Ali, Clara Nightingale, XY, Jagged Stone and other celebrities. Marinette rolled her eyes and both girls greeted Adrien and Nino. Alya was too busy between listening to Lila and something on her phone to even notice them. Chloe huffed at Hannah and Marinette and concentrated on her nails.

Ms Bustier was there, but she was busy frowning and some paperwork and it looked like she was not about to start the roll call any time soon, but the students were at their places.

Marinette frowned at her phone and then raised her eyes towards Lila who glared at the new girl with raw hatred. Adrien followed Hannah with his eyes to her spot and noticed the was Lila looked at her. The boy frowned. This did not look good.

Hannah sat down and concentrated on the speech of the girl behind her. Lila stressed her diplomatic passport and her residence in the Italian embassy. Then Hannah recognized the names of the charities and the famous stars. Hannah sighed happily, there, sitting just behind her, was one of her heroes, one of the young people that so selflessly helped people like her and her family.

“Oh, Hannah?” Lila called. Marinette stiffened, Adrien held in his ‘oh no’. But the girl who was called turned around with the happiest expression on her face. “Yes Lila?”

“I have so many problems with my math worksheet and I have so little time ...” Lila started her usual rant about celebrities and charities that Hannah was not able to follow, but she was pushing her math worksheet towards Hannah so the girl took it.

“You need help? I can help.” Hannah took the worksheet and quickly solved problems on a sheet of paper she tore from her notebook. The bell rang, but she continued to write down the solutions on that paper, she was finished before Ms Bustier finished with the roll call and passed the worksheet and the papers with solutions back to Lila. Ivan, Max and Kim all noticed the exchange.

Hannah sighed happily, perhaps it was cheating to help like she just did, but she would help any of her classmates with the subjects she knew so well, she always did that. Besides, she wanted to become friends with Lila. (She never reconsidered that Lila called her out for passing notes during the class but asked her to solve her math worksheet anyway.)

Hannah felt her day went downhill from there. Ms Bustier asked random questions about the historical facts they learned the last year. The students were raising hands and answering one by one. That was just fine. The teacher was too quick for her that morning. And she was distracted by her thoughts.

The fact was that she admired Lila for her charity work. Hannah got to escape alive from her home town and her country thanks to charity, she was fed and clothed by the charity. Her parents both continued to work as doctors in refugee camps they visited and even helped Medicines Sans Frontiers on their was to France, but they were never paid. They relied on charities for everything. It was the charity centre where Hannah learned French and read books. She was allowed to use the painting equipment there. While there, Hannah made tens of simple aquarelle paintings that depicted the scenes from her home land. The town, destructed as well as whole, it surroundings, and there were a few paintings of people, like dark shadows hiding in the basement and even dead bodies in the street. She was bad at painting people, but she did it anyway. In the community centre, they told her it was therapy, so she spend all her time there until the school started. People there liked her paintings. They even asked to include them in a small local exhibition. She agreed. She always agreed.

Therefore, when the teacher asked about some particular war that occurred at some particular location and particular year B.C. Hannah missed the question completely. The teacher scolded her and repeated the question.

“It was the Third Punic War from 149 to 146 BC that ended with the fall of Carthage.” Hannah answered.

“That is completely wrong and not what I asked you. You should pay more attention, Hannah” The teacher scolded gently.

She sat down sad and irritated. She let her thoughts wander away. She listened to the explanation that Sabrina gave. Of course, Hannah misunderstood the question completely. This conquer of territories in Africa was about Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius and Kleopatra. She missed by more than a century. Of course the teacher was angry.

“That is okay. It was a difficult question for you.” Marinette whispered briefly. She could sense that Hannah was having a hard time and given the statistics of her class, the girl might be akumatized soon.

The next break, Adrien made sure to run for his notes from the last year that he kept in his locker and bring the notebook and explain the basics to Hannah.

“Marinette is much better in history than me, but I have my notebook here by chance.” The boy explained as the teacher cleared her throat to signal she was about to resume teaching.

Adrien jumped back to his seat while Hannah stared at the notebook. Marinette was still turned around and watched the neat handwriting of her beloved crush with gentle eyes. Another warning and she had to separate her eyes.

“I would love to help you with this.” Marinette whispered and turned around.

Hannah was reading the notebook. It was easier to read for her.

The teacher resumed repetition of the last school year. This time Hannah knew which Roman emperor waged which war and which year (with the help of Adrien’s notebook). She felt more relaxed.

However, what Adrien did (and the fact that he did it) did not go unnoticed. Chloe could not hide her annoyance. And Lila glared at the back of the girl before her hidden from the rest of the class behind her hair.

The next break passed with them running to the science lab for the first set of experiments. Hannah was thrilled. She loved science

Hannah was wearing a red and white tartan shirt (obviously the smallest size for men and totally too large for her) unbuttoned over a black t-shirt with a picture of an old rock band and a pair of blue jeans (that were aged for real not artificially). The whole outfit was fashionable at some other place and time, but not then and not in Paris. And it was the clothing designed for boys, not girls. She got it at some red cross post few weeks ago, when she was accepted to go to school. Those items looked only slightly worn and were not damaged. Most of the girl’s clothing simply asked for attention. Hannah did not like the attention too much. With some luck, she might just go through the school unnoticed, save for her academic achievements, but those could go generally unnoticed too.

Well, the attention she got from a certain blonde model boy did not go unnoticed. Not that it was that kind of attention. She was just a fellow student who might use some help and both him and Marinette were ready to jump in. But certain blonde heiress had had enough. Nobody was going to steal the attention of her childhood friend away from her.

During chemistry in the lab, they were doing a few simple experiments that should help them repeat what they learned last year. Hannah did her tasks really quickly, computed everything, even helped Ivan with his notes and cleaned up the table.

It was bound to happen. The class was about to finish and the students were disposing their chemicals and washing their equipment.

“oops.” Chloe exclaimed while she purposefully flipped a vessel holding a chemical towards the new girl. Luckily it was diluted just as much not to cause instant burns, but it burned Hannah skin and her clothes started to change colour. She was crying in pain.

Marinette glared at the resident bully and wanted to get Hannah out from the classroom.

“Come on, we have to go to the nurse.” Marinette urged the girl.

But Hannah protested between her screams and took off her t-shirt and the tartan shirt in one go and dumped it into the sink, then she started to wash her burning skin. It was red, but Mme Mendeleev was relieved that it was not much worse. Hannah proceeded to remove her trousers. Adrien was closest to her, he wanted to help but he did not dare to touch her burning skin and thought twice about helping her to take off her trousers. Marinette was passing fresh wet cloths to the girl and the teacher helped with one spot on the back.

“Clever girl, you have to wash it as soon as possible. Come on. All the boys out. This instant.” The teacher ordered sternly. “Come on hurry up, there is nothing to see here.”

Adrien hesitated for a moment before shouted he was running for the nurse.

Marinette helped the girl to take off her trousers. But those were obviously too large for her and simply dropped around her ankles quickly.

Cold bandages and soothing cream over the lunch break and Hannah was going to be ready for the afternoon lessons. The teacher offered her lab coat to the girl so that she would not walk to the nurses office only in her underwear. The nurse treated her injuries with a soothing cream. Soon, the girl felt no burns, but the skin was still slightly red.

“Marinette, could you please bring some clothes for your classmate?” Mme Mendeleev asked the class president. Marinette nodded and ran away as she pulled out her phone and called up her maman. When she ran out from the school she bumped into Adrien who was waiting for the car to pull over.

“Is Hannah going to be okay?” The boy asked worriedly.

“Yeah, but her clothes is ruined. I am going home to fetch something for her.” Marinette was running away without tripping, stumbling or falling, she spoke without stuttering or flailing her hands with rather familiar determination in her blue eyes. She was a woman (well a girl) on a mission. She burst into the bakery.

“Hi maman, papa. Chloe ruined Hannah’s clothes in chemistry. Going to fetch something. Bye.” She was already running up the stairs. Sabine shook her head. Tom shrugged. That was their daughter.

Adrien entered the car, at first he wanted to text Nathalie. But then he gave it another thought. He should not make other people help Hannah. Chloe should help her. He dialled the number of his childhood friend.

“Hi Chloe!” Adrien greeted. He ignored her word outburst.

“I don’t care if that was an accident. You ruined her clothes and injured her.” The boy was serious. He ignored the insults that Chloe spat regarding the poor girls clothes and appearance.

“You are going to make it up to her. She needs clothes to go to school. I don’t care what you think about her taste of fashion.” The boy practically shouted before Chloe hung up on him.

The boy clearly remembered the open book shelf that held the tiny amount of clothes that Hannah and her brothers obviously shared. He was certain those clothes they got used already and she got them from some charity. He decided to go through his own wardrobe and see if he had any items for her brothers that were too small for him. It turned out he did have those. He filled his duffel bag with several t-shirts and trousers, he stared at the pile, there was nothing for Hannah.

Marinette returned to school with one bag of clothing and another bag of pastries (the latter courtesy of her mother). Hannah was soon dressed in blue tights and pink tunic with flowers embroidered around her neckline..

“You look great.” Marinette smiled.

“Thank you Marinette.” Hannah beamed. Her messy ponytail of slightly curly brown hair was hiding he embroidery in the back.

“This fabric is light cotton it will not scratch your injured skin.” The pigtailed girl beamed.

The two girls shared their lunch with the nurse who was obviously not taking her lunch break today. Just before the bell announced the end of the lunch break, the nurse deemed Hannah good to continue with her lessons.

The girls went directly to their next class. Adrien was waiting for them expectantly. Most of the other students were still not back from their lunch break.

“Hannah.” The boy called after the greetings, he carried a large paper bag where he unloaded all the clothes he picked up at home. “This is for your brothers. I am sorry I do not have anything for you.”

“Thank you Adrien.” Hannah beamed as she inspected the bag. “This will help a lot.” Then she put it in her locker. “Marinette helped me.”

“This is amazing Marinette.” The boy praised his blushing classmate. “You made this yourself?”

Marinette nodded to confirm.

“Look, it has flowers.” The girl pointed to her neckline and the hem of the tunic as well ans the hem of the blue tights.

Adrien glanced and praised Marinette further.

Lila lead a group of students into the classroom. Adrien and Marinette were busy discussing the flowers that Marinette used for her inspiration, the designer blushed at each praise and explained the tricks she did to make each of the flowers.

“And then it was too small for me within a year.” The designer finally shrugged.

Hannah did not have a clue about fashion, but she knew to do all of the basic stuff. She was just never interested to learn how to do elaborate and intricate details nor to pay much attention to style and design of her clothes. Besides, it was not like she could, for the last few years she was happy if her clothes were clean and not torn.

“It is yours.” Marinette smiled. “You can keep it”

“Thank you Marinette.” The girl positively beamed. She hugged her classmate fiercely.

“You should take a photo of her for your portfolio.” Adrien looked at Marinette. “But those blue tights and blue flowers would look much better on you, they are the same colour of your eyes.” The boy admired those same eyes a bit too long. Marinette blushed under his warm gaze as she was lost in his green warmth. Alya squealed with delight at the sight with most of the rest of the girls. Lila was sulking in the back. Nino raised his eyebrows at his best bro, he thought the boy was now with Kagami, but there was the gift he brought for Hannah and he was in her home and now he was openly flirting with Marinette. At least Adrien debunked that insinuation from Lila that they were secretly dating. But with Chloe openly throwing herself on the boy, Nino started to think of his best bro as some kind of young Casanova. Well, he concluded, he should not have been so surprised, the boy was famous supermodel, his statue in the wax museum was rather popular, it was only a matter of time (and probably hormones) until something like this happened.

That was the scene when Chloe stormed in with Sabrina in tow. The red haired girl dragged a brown paper bag. Chloe faced the blonde model boy with her icy blue eyes.

“I will have you know, Adriekins, this was the best I could do on such short notice. Sabrina!” She ordered her companion to hand over the brown bag.

“I am sorry your clothes got ruined.” Chloe recited with her nose high up in the air. “And I am sorry for your injuries.” Then she flipped her ponytail and sat on her place.

“I do not know if I got your size right. You have the receipt, you can change.” Sabrina muttered to Hannah. The last girl stared at the clothes. It was something similar to what she was wearing in chemistry, but the price tags were still on them. She got some new clothes today. She was so happy. This day could not get any better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Hannah thought that Chloe did it on purpose, she would have been akumatized, the same is valid if she recognized how she was treated afterwards (when she got the clothes).  
> The next chapter brings results of the French grammar test and more opportunity to akumatize the girl.


	14. French Grammar Test Results

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The test results are back and few students are not thrilled.   
> Also some gossip.  
> Fortunately there are friendly colleagues and a gym class to unwind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The results are ... as expected.

French grammar test results

The day could not get any worse. Hannah was taking deep breaths. She was not going to cry.

The results from the French grammar test were back.

Hannah knew French was probably her worst subject, but she expected to be acceptable at grammar and worse in literature. Because literature meant she had to read and interpret French. She was, at first, pleasantly surprised that she scored about 65 percent. But then she noticed that she was systematically wrong in whole tasks, there were many comments in red pencil. Her errors were always systematic. When she failed one question she failed them all for a certain task. The score of her online test was much better.

But to her horror, she noticed that Adrien and Marinette did not have one hundred percent. Although they both seemed happy about their results, Hannah could not help herself but feel guilty. If her new friends were not helping her, they would have solved all tasks correctly, for sure. (The geek in her could not accept anything but the perfect score, okay, and she idolized her friends.)

Hannah was not the worst in her class. Lila scored even worse and Kim was close to her result.

“This is serious.” The teacher announced. “Everyone with a score below seventy five is going to take additional classes after school this month to learn again what you forgot.” That was the polite way to say it, okay. “Good score on your online test will not save you.” The teacher stared at Lila, but Hannah felt as if the teacher was staring at her.

“I will be late to pick up my brothers.” Hannah slumped in defeat and muttered to herself. Marinette was worried for the girl behind her, she did not understand what the girl was talking, but she could hear from her voice that the girl was stressed. “They will have to go home alone on those days.” She sighed. “At least they did not expel me for this. Yet.”

The class president decided to turn around and see the colleagues who were expected to take additional classes. Lila glared at her. Kim shrugged and looked at his test defeated. Hannah looked at her desperately.

“How will I pick up my brothers?” She managed to whisper to her classmate.

“We will think of something.” Marinette smiled and held her hand for a second. Then she had to turn around and face the teacher. Ivan patted Hannah on her shoulder and several students smiled and gave her the thumbs up just like they did to the other colleagues who had to go to additional classes.

Lila glared at her test results. She always thought Alya was excellent in French because of her journalistic aspirations. But then the teacher praised Alya, Adrien, Rose and Mylenne for having the best results. Lila narrowed her eyes and bent over her bench to see better. Ninety eight percent? Lila flipped the pages of her test until she found a message written in red. ‘Your score is bad because you copied the results from another group.’ There were groups? She wanted to scream. She looked at the teacher and considered how to turn this around, while the teacher mentioned additional classes and even named the students she expected there.

Lila began to whine about her charities and obligations but the teacher kept her ground.

Hannah stared at her percentage and concentrated on her breathing. Perhaps this was good. She would be able to learn and she might get to know this Lila girl better. She was into charities. Perhaps she could help Hannah. There was always something good in everything bad that happened to her. This was not so bad, yes, she decided it was going to be okay. (I know that kids that age tend to turn everything to a disaster, but this girl should be able to calm down on her own).

But then the teacher decided to teach. She wrote and example to the blackboard and randomly (nope it was not random at all) called Hannah to solve it.

The girl was not ready. She approached the blackboard slowly. She heard not so subtle nor quiet comments behind her. She did not try to understand them because she was focused on the problem on the blackboard.

‘Not so brave as few days ago in physics, are we?’ Lila whispered to Max. But the short bespectacled boy spent hours in tech class with the girl and knew that French was her weakest spot. He admired the tiny girl. Everyone who was there could see that she struggled with French and spoke worse than Marinette when she talked to Adrien. Ivan frowned and stared at Lila in surprise.

‘Just give her another opportunity to flash her brains.’ Chloe muttered.

‘Go girl go’ Alix cheered. Marinette frowned. This was a tricky question, even she failed one of such type. Adrien rolled his eyes, it was nasty thing to ask a native French about that problem, let alone a foreigner who was just learning the language.

‘Miss I want the explanation in English.’ Lila mouthed to Ivan who shook his head in return. Ivan was one of the few who appreciated that their English teacher gave instructions in French too. But the boy did not hold that request against the new student. He noticed how much the girl was struggling.

Nathaniel just sat there with his shoulders hunched. He was one of them with a poor score, not that he was poor in grammar, but he just had a strike of inspiration and spent half of the time meant for the exam doodling sketches of his next comic book. His score was just below the limit.

Hannah was standing in front of the blackboard. She walked slowly as she tried to remember which trick she had to use to fill in the blank spot to make the sentence correct. She knew she got that one wrong, she got all the examples in that task wrong. Finally she decided which word to write. She got on her toes but could not reach the line. She simply wrote the word underneath.

“And that is wrong.” The teacher announced. The girl slumped her shoulders but looked at the teacher expectantly.

“This is the beauty of French language, there are fine differences between this and that. One tiny word changes the meaning of this sentence completely, but this form is grammatically incorrect. You should take care of the way you express yourself and your sentences. They picture you as a person of culture. French is the language of love. But it is also the language of diplomacy. You have to be aware of all the finesses.” The teacher continued to lecture the class.

Adrien sighed. It reminded him too much of his training to be the proper model boy and worthy of being the son of his father. Marinette felt sorry for the girl and watched for violet butterflies. None of this was Hannah fault. Alya was incredulous. That was a difficult question. It was silly to pull a new girl and then give such a lecture. Nino was happy he scored above the threshold and was assembling a new playlist in his head when he finally noticed that the girl in front of the blackboard did not appreciate the situation she was put in. Chloe scoffed. She had additional private tutors who trained her for this. She even bothered to correct Sabrina’s performance. It was inappropriate for her friend to fail at these.

“Teacher?” Hannah spoke timidly.

“Yes?” the teacher turned around surprised to see that the girl was still there.

“What is the correct answer?” The girl asked quietly.

The teacher sighed and pronounced the whole sentence. The way she connected the groups of words did not reveal to Hannah what she did wrong. The girl stared at the teacher then at the blackboard and then back at the teacher.

“Could you repeat that please?” Hannah asked again, timidly. That was a sentence she used often.

The teacher sighed. This was obviously testing her patience, but she repeated the sentence with gentle smile. She used the same speed and connected the same words. Hannah was lost, she did not notice the difference.

“She is not getting it.” Lila exclaimed in high pitched tone.

“There is no chance for Hannah to get this.” Marinette muttered worriedly while she was checking for violet butterflies.

Adrien got to his feet, he took the chalk from Hannah with a careful smile, the boy treated her as a child ever since he learned her real age, and he wrote the correct answer on the line. The girl looked up and smiled. She understood the trick.

“Thank you.” She looked at both Adrien and the teacher and ran back to her seat. Adrien followed with the same speed but in few elegant strides.

Hannah flipped her exam paper open to the page with a task that required usage of the same trick and her notebook. She started to copy the sentences with the different solution. She grinned, she thought she got it.

But the teacher was not finished. She started the next lecture and noticed that Hannah was writing while she was supposed to listen. Little did she know that the new girl was not able to follow her elaborate and tricky lecture.

“Hannah, you should pay attention to the class, not scribble up in your notebook.” The teacher approached and took the notebook. It was light blue with a Unicef logo on it. It was filled with different exercises that Hannah did when she trained for her French exam (the one she failed but managed to get into Francois Dupont anyway). She finally looked at the last page and read it to herself. She nodded and returned the notebook.

“Please pay attention to the class, you will be able to practise during the additional classes.” The teacher spoke as she descended the stairs. The woman took in a deep breath, once she saw the notebook, she understood that she called out a girl who was a foreigner and was still learning the basics. Principal Damocles was supposed to note such stuff to the teachers.

Marinette looked at her classmate and smiled, Hannah actually smiled back, an honest natural smile. That was a relief, Hannah should not be akumatized so soon.

There was a lecture and then they got the exercises to do for their homework. Hannah meticulously copied all the examples. There were eight pages of worksheets. Hannah sighed as she looked at her own. Everyone got a slightly different piece of text to analyse, pick the sentences that were intentionally grammatically incorrect and put them into a correct form. And that was just the page one. The bell rang and they had the gym class again.

Alya went to Lila as soon as the class finished. Marinette frowned and decided to lag behind, concerned if Hannah was able to join for the gym, Adrien was engaged in conversation with Chloe and avoided any proximity to Lila.

“Sorry, I had no clue about the groups.” Alya apologized to Lila.

“Marinette and Hannah obviously knew, they could have told us.” Lila feigned being hurt.”That new girl has no morals, have you seen how she stripped in chemistry, in front of the boys? Poor Adrien. You know that boys can’t help themselves with such things. He just had to run away.”

Alya nodded and smiled as if she agreed. She could not tell for other boys in general, but she knew that Nino, at least, did not see anything attractive in a small girl without a single womanly curve on her body.

Other girls from their class thought about that. It was highly unlikely that any of them would strip so lightly in front of the boys and stand in the classroom in their underwear.

“But that is the best way to minimize her injuries.” Max piped in. “Taking off the clothes and washing away the chemical helps reduce the injuries by 89 percent.”

That day in the gym, the teacher gave them the usual time to warm up and then they were about to do some gymnastics. Hannah felt her skin tinge at the spots that got in touch with the chemical few hours ago and hoped it was not a contact kind of exercise, she did not understand the instructions the teacher gave them, save a few words. She made sure to stand in the back and observe what she was expected to do.

First there was the vault. They were expected to run, jump off a springboard and off the vaulting horse. That was quick and easy. Ivan and Mylenne bot just jumped off the springboard then pushed off the vaulting horse and landed more or less gracefully. Nathaniel jumped over and never touched the horse, he flew too high. Kim and Alix were competing for speed while Max measured their time. Chloe was worried about her nails. Hannah took her initial try carefully, she was not sure how strong was the spring board. It was years since the last time she used one of those. But she enjoyed it. Physical stress felt so good after all the stress from the French language class.

They formed a circle. After a few jumps, several students started to jump over in different poses, sideways, relying on only one hand or with their legs wide and they released different sounds. Alix and Kim started to challenge other students who jumped over more bravely. Finally it was turn for Hannah and her last jump. The cushion mattress behind the vaulting horse seemed soft enough for her to try. She ran and jumped off the spring board, she made her first flip in the air before she landed on her feet and instantly jumped off from the vaulting horse for another flip before she landed on the mattress, she spread her arms wide and smiled. There were several mouths gaping at her until Alix did far more complicated flip with rotation around horizontal and vertical axes. Hannah applauded to the pink haired girl. Marinette jumped beautifully with an extra rotation along the vertical axis. She even landed gracefully and everything was fine until Adrien whistled and grinned at her. She tripped over the thin air and landed before the teacher’s feet. The boys also tried more extravagant jumps with more or less success, Kim landed awkwardly and the teacher decided they had enough.

The teacher asked her name and made a note on his tablet. After that, they were expected to walk on a low balance beam. They also formed a circle where everyone did it a few times until simple walking became too boring for several of them. This time it was Alix and Hannah who invented different ways of funny walking on the balance beam, they both did a few side flips before the gym teacher warned them not to try anything dangerous. He eyed Hannah through the exercise.

Finally they did the floor, they arranged the mattresses because the gym was universal for most sports and not equipped with specific floor equipment. Hannah loved it, she flipped she turned and then she finally did her first salto. The teacher whistled and called her to the side. Alix and Marinette ran over to her side but the teacher sent them away.

“I can’t let you do that.” The teacher pointed towards the spot on the mattresses where she jumped. “You can injure yourself.” He warned. Hannah was high on adrenaline and slightly out of breath, she barely understood what the man was telling her. She nodded.

She returned to the floor and did a few side flips before the teacher whistled to end the gym class.

“What did he want?” Alix grinned at Hannah in the locker room.

“To stop. It is dangerous.” Hannah shrugged. She was slowly catching her breath. None of what she did in that gym class seemed even remotely dangerous to her, but the teacher said no, so she stopped.

“You did really great.” Alix grinned. “I am glad to have you in this class.”

“Me too.” Marinette smiled.

“Did you train gymnastics?” Alya asked with a wide smile.

“In school.” Hannah smiled back proudly. There were literally two sports she could train, gymnastics and handball, and she trained both. Her parents always told her that she would be jumping around the house instead. But she did not know how to explain that, so she just smiled to her classmates. The gym was patted with protective mattresses, she felt as if she could not get injured whatever she tried.

Then the boys came and Adrien put one hand on Marinette’s shoulder and another on Hannah’s. “You girls were great.” The boy beamed. Marinette flushed, Hannah shrugged and Nino wondered just what was going on with his best bro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kagami and Luka meet Hannah in the next chapter.


	15. The Basement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami and Luka meet Hannah and get into a hairy situation.  
> (I can't help myself to writhe the summary like this).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what would be Luka's opinion on Lila to start with so I guess he should not be thrilled about a girl that got Marinette expelled, at least according to Marinette.

Geometric shapes of love

Marinette was quickly back home and down to the bakery. She often helped in the afternoon, especially with packing orders for delivery. Luka would come and greet her and sometimes he would even take her for a ride. Rides with Luka were fun and she liked the time she spent with the boy, but both of them were aware that she was not ready for anything but friendship. She hoped to forget about Adrien over the holidays. She hoped that now that he was with Kagami, she would be able to let go of him. But she was not. The summer holidays have passed and she was still thinking about the model boy.

“This is the last delivery.” Marinette smiled to Luka.

“Aren’t you forgetting something.” Tom winked and motioned towards the box that Marinette intended to bring to Hannah.

“Oh yes there is still this box.” Marinette took it. “I will deliver this one myself, this one is for my new classmate, Hannah.”

“Hey, I could give you a ride?” Luka offered. He heard about the new classmate from Juleka and Marinette and the stories did not match, he wanted to see for himself.

So both of them left on his bike, they decided to make the delivery first and then Luka would take her all the way to Hannah.

“So this Hannah girl, she is the new in your class?” Luka started the conversation about the new girl.

“Yeah, she is really nice, perhaps a bit too nice.” Marinette frowned.

“How can someone be too nice?” Luka half teased.

“She thinks Chloe is nice. And Lila too.” The girl sighed.

“Oh I see.” Luka encouraged the girl to speak more. Juleka had a good opinion of Lila while Marinette resented her, which was understandable if she was really expelled because of her.

“Today Chloe ruined her clothes. Then Chloe made Sabrina get some new clothes for Hannah and the poor girl now thinks Chloe is a saint.” Marinette summarized the events. “Not to mention that I brought her my own handmade clothes for her and now, somehow that was out shined by a lazy gesture of an heiress.”

“Huh, that is interesting.” Luka frowned.

“She had a bad day, I want to be there for her, I do not want her akumatized.” She summarized.

That afternoon Adrien and Kagami were strolling in the park. Kagami spoke about her travel to Japan and everything she saw. And she spoke about fencing, a lot. It was not really a date, or maybe it was like a date but between friends. They were on few such rendes-vous before Kagami went to Japan for the holidays and to train her fencing with a few masters there. Sometimes they would hold hands. But they mostly just walked around and chatted. Both of them were able to escape their home and controlling parents on the pretence of fencing.

“Are you ready for the fencing tournament this Saturday?” Adrien asked with a smirk.

“Be ready to be wiped out.” Kagami threatened with a smile. “You will see a few new moves I learned there.”

“Perhaps I learned a few tricks too.” The boy smiled back.

Adrien, on the other hand was thinking about what happened with Chloe and Hannah that day. He felt responsible for the actions of his childhood friend,

“So what is new with you?” Kagami asked.

“I would like you to meet that new classmate of mine.” Adrien sighed. “Today Chloe spilled a chemical over Hannah and ruined her clothes. She had to be treated at the nurse. Marinette brought her something to wear. I’m worried about her, we should pay her a visit”

“How bad was she injured?” Kagami suspected that Adrien avoided being alone with her, again.

“Not too bad, she stayed in school for the afternoon classes. I made Chloe get her some new clothes. The poor girl now thinks that Chloe is an angel.” He sighed.

“Huh?” Kagami frowned.

“She even thinks that Lila is nice.” Adrien frowned. “I was even passing her a note to warn her!”

“She is not clever then.” The girl concluded.

“No, she is very clever, she is as good as Max in science and math.” He protested.

“That is admirable, but it does not make her wise.” She accepted.

“But she is only twelve.” Adrien countered. “She is hiding her real age for some reason.”

“You mean she lied about her age?” Kagami raised her eyebrows.

“It is not like that.” Adrien protested.

They were passing a shop that sold different items for entertainment. Adrien noticed they sold different board games and even chess. It was a cheap plastic version, but there were other games too.

“I want to get something here, just a moment.” The boy asked Kagami who followed the boy into the shop with curious eyes. They gagged at few things, but Adrien was determined to get the chessboard. When he asked for board games and chess he was pointed towards the corner where they had a choice. The boy was surprised how many boxes he could get.

“I thought you had all the games in your room and nobody to play with.” Kagami teased.

“I want to get a game for Hannah and her brothers.” The boy replied. The girl was surprised by the reply. “You see, I have been to her home on Monday, she made chess out of cardboard.”

“Who would make chess out of a cardboard and why?” Kagami frowned. “And why were you at her home? What did her parents say?”

“Her parents were not home.” The boy shrugged. “She invited Marinette and me home on the first day of school. I was there yesterday to bring her a few books. She said we are always welcome.”

Kagami and Adrien finally chose a package that had different board games and a wooden chess game.

“Come on, let’s take it to her.” The boy smirked.

“But she did not invite me.” Kagami protested.

“We are going to just leave it with her at her door if we can’t come in, but I am sure she’d like to meet you.” Adrien replied, she understood that the girl craved to meet new friends.

It was a short walk to the building on the side of the park. They found Marinette with the box of pastries while Luka was locking his bike. They exchanged their greetings. Luka was sruprised to find Adrien and Kagami there as much as Kagami was surprised by Luka and Marinette.

“Are you bringing pastries for Hannah?” Adrien smiled widely, he obviously expected her.

“Yeah, and what did you get?” Marinette looked at the paper bag he held.

“Just some board games.” Adrien shrugged.

Adrien bravely opened the entrance door. They met a few adults inside who sat by a small table on the side and drank coffee.

“Whom are you visiting?” One man asked.

“Hannah” Adrien replied sheepishly. “Top floor.”

“You two have been here before.” The other man replied. “The other girl and the boy weren’t.”

“She is with me, she is fine. And the boy too.” Adrien smiled. The two men waved them away and they started to climb the stairs. Kagami was surprised and slightly concerned with everything she saw on the way. People lived in those corridors too. It was always busy. On one floor they were connecting tables and arranging chairs in the wide corridor, they were obviously setting up a party.

The four of them arrived at the door to Hannah’s flat and Adrien knocked.

A boy opened the door and looked at the two teenagers.

“Hi Robbie? Eddie? Do you remember Marinette and me? I am Adrien. This is Kagami. There is Luka. Is Hannah home?” The boy asked politely with a huge smile.

The boy got out and closed the door behind him.

“Mama and papa are sleeping.” He put his finger over his mouth. “Night shift.”

The other boy peeked out, smiled, and got out too.

“Is Hannah home?” Marinette asked quietly.

“Downstairs. Laundry.” The other boy was pulling his ear. “Hi I am Robbie.” He offered his hand to Kagami. They all exchanged introductions.

“Let me show you Hannah.” Eddie motioned with his hand for the others to follow.

They descended the stairs until they reached the basement. Adrien was surprised to see that there were people there too. The boy lead them to a room that had a washing machine. Hannah sat on one box with her homework spread over another washing machine that was obviously unplugged and not working for some time.

“Hi Hannah” Marinette and Adrien greeted in unison.

“Oh hi … everyone.” Hannah jumped to her feet.

“Sorry to just drop by unannounced.” Marinette smiled. “I brought you some food from the bakery.”

“Pastries.” Both boys smiled at the box and raised their fists to celebrate.

Marinette set the box on the washing machine so they could open it and take some food.

“I brought you these board games.” Adrien extended his arm and held out the bag.

Hannah approached timidly. She took the bag and looked at the contents.

“Chess and the board game package.” She was bouncing on her feet. “I saw them, in that shop, other side of the park. Oh, thank you Adrien.” She hugged the paper bag.

“This is Kagami.” The boy introduced the girl by his side.

“And this is Luka.” Marinette introduced the boy too.

They exchanged handshakes. Kagami was still overpowered by the whole experience and the environment she found herself in.

“Hey, would you like to play one game?” Hannah asked as she examined the contents of the bag.

“Here?” Kagami whispered.

“Now?” Luka asked.

“Why not, I need to wait for the laundry to finish and I got stuck with the homework anyway.” Hannah shrugged. “Besides, mama and papa are sleeping. We cant play upstairs.”

Hannah quickly picked up empty plastic boxes that were designed to hold bottles and the seven of them were sitting around another box that served as a table. Marinette picked a game that could fit for all seven and was simple. So they played a few rounds and chatted.

“So how is your French?” Adrien inquired.

“Progressing very well, thank you!” Eddie replied.

“Thank you for the clothes.” Robbie beamed. The boys were stuffing themselves with cookies.

“I gave them my linguistic training books and CDs.” Adrien explained to Kagami.

“That is not the way to learn proper French. You will sound like Adrien then. You need to learn to speak like a regular school kid.” Luka joked.

“I told you we should call girls chicks.” Eddie told his brother.

“You should not.” Marinette and Kagami replied in unison.

“You should call them ladies.” Adrien beamed.

Marinette blushed when she heard that, Kagami giggled.

“See, the girls prefer to be called ladies than to be called chicks.” Adrien grinned.

That encouraged further blushes and giggles from the girls, including Hannah in the process.

“Girls are boring.” Eddie concluded.

“Ladies too.” Robbie teased.

“We just want to play games with the boys.” Eddie shrugged.

Adrien discussed games with them. Marinette joined in. Kagami noticed the rubber bands on Marinette’s pigtails were off and she sneakily pulled them off and let her hair down. Since the other girl did not react, she started to comb her hair with her fingers.

“You are really beautiful with your hair down.” Luka smiled gently at Marinette who blushed back.

Soon Luka and Adrien were arranging her locks together with Kagami.

“There, this is very nice.” Kagami smiled.

“Please help our sister. She has jungle hair.” Robbie snickered while he ate pastry.

“I do not have jungle hair.” Hannah protested. “It is just ...” She could not really explain so she pulled the rubber band of her pony tail. The hair was slightly curly and went in all directions.

“Don’t play with electricity plugs.” Eddie teased.

“Yeah.” Hannah rolled her eyes as she tried to collect her hair back into the rubber band.

“No wait.” Adrien and Kagami were already playing with her hair, it was funny how it always bounced in most unpredictable ways.

“It was a wet day so it got curled more?” Luka asked calmly. “Juleka has such problems, but she always straightens her hair.”

“I don’t have a brush or a comb to help you with it.” Marinette frowned as she run her fingers through her hair. It looked as if the more they touched the hair the bigger it grew. A curl would spread into a wide messy bush of hair. And Hannah had hair that was reaching below her waist.

“She cuts our hair, but not hers.” Eddie commented.

“Marinette, perhaps you and the girls could help out Hannah with her hair.” Luka smirked as he laughed how the girls hair flew everywhere, especially over her face. “You really have that wild rock and roll hair.”

“You sound like Jagged Stone right now.” Adrien beamed at Luka who winked back.

“I guess I picked up a thing or two from the man.” Luka smiled.

“Like calling girls chicks and playing a guitar?” Kagami cut in.

“Jagged is too cool, he can pass even if he calls girls chicks.” Adrien smirked.

Marinette and Kagami were trying to comb Hannah’s hair with their fingers but the boys were literally destroying all their efforts by spreading it around more and more.

“Hey, your hair is so long it reaches taller than Luka and me.” Adrien laughed at one bang that was electrified and stood practically upright.

“I told you. Jungle hair.” Robbie laughed.

“Can I have my hair back?” Hannah finally spoke timidly.

“Let us play.” Adrien whined.

“Try to shake your head like in that rock videos.” Luka encouraged.

“All right.” Hannah shrugged and let her hair fly around.

After that, Marinette taught Kagami how to make Hannah’s hair into one braid. The final result was loosely tied, but it was was thick and wide and long. Finally, Adrien took her braid and put it over her shoulder. It was just like his mother used to wear her hair sometimes. Everyone was oddly quiet.

“Perhaps I could help you with that homework?” Marinette offered to change the subject.

“Or me?” Adrien grinned.

“Uh, it is that additional homework I got for bad score.” Hannah frowned.

“We could help?” Marinette repeated.

“I think I have to do it myself.” Hannah was determined not to be a bother to her classmates.

“Come on, let’s see what is bothering you.” Adrien took the homework from the washing machine and took a look. “Oh, this one is tricky.” He pointed to the task where Hannah got stuck. He explained it briefly before the laundry was finished.

They went out from the basement and said their greetings.

Luka put Marinette on the bike and drove away.

“You were right.” Kagami spoke quietly as they walked away to the meeting spot they agreed with Adrien’s bodyguard and Kagami’s driverless car. “I had to meet her and see this for myself.”

“Yeah.” Adrien frowned. Kagami did not even see the tiny flat, and yet even that space felt like home the instant he entered.

“I don’t mean it in a bad way.” Kagami misinterpreted why Adrien frowned. “Hannah seems like a nice person. But I see what you mean.”

“What?” Adrien was lost in thoughts.

“She trusts everyone. She just met me and Luka and she invited us to stay and play a game.” The girl was clearly surprised by the actions. “I like her. She does not hesitate.”

“She did, about her homework.” Adrien countered.

“That was because she wanted to do it one her own, she wanted to be independent.” Kagami argued back.

Both of them looked up. Way up, at the highest level of the French balconies, a girl had set laundry to dry. Adrien called the name of his classmate and him and Kagami waved their hands for her to notice. The girl waved both of her hands and smiled widely. She looked genuinely happy.

“Hannah is a refugee?” Luka asked quietly as he pushed the bike while him and Marinette walked back to the bakery.

“Yeah. Please don’t tell. She is not telling people that stuff.” Marinette frowned.

“I could tell Juleka, and she might tell Rose. But it should not go further than that.” Luka inquired.

“Please tell them to be careful. Lila already dislikes her.” The girl pleaded.

“Hannah is very nice girl. She seems younger than anyone in your class.” Luka prodded further.

Marinette rolled her eyes. She learned Hannah’s secret and she would not tell that one too.

“Please let Hannah reveal her secrets herself to whom and when she chooses.” Marinette pleaded.

“She is younger?” Luka repeated. “I have such student in my class, the boy is a musical prodigy, but has no clue about French. He is few years younger than me and had to take a tutor for the language.”

Marinette flipped her head quickly. “So if someone helps Hannah with the language, she can stay in our class?”

“If she wants and if she does not struggle in everything else.” Luka replied. “Juleka told me she is good in science and math.”

Marinette confirmed.

“I will have Juleka to invite Hannah to Freedom on Saturday. She might like some air after that basement.” The boy smiled as he looked around and took in the open sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet the parents?


	16. Accused

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the parents!  
> Learn the darkest family secret. (Not so dark I promise)  
> And the shortest akuma battle ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some shocking statements ahead, beware.
> 
> A short note on the previous chapter, they were in the basement and I totally ignored Adrien's claustrophobia.

Accused

“Marinette, your mother and me don’t mind if you spend more time with your classmate.” Tom was talking at dinner. “Or Luka.” He added after a short rhetorical pause. “But please let us know for how long you plan to be away the next time.”

The girl was sorry, blushed for the teasing and was grateful for her parents understanding.

“I’m so happy that Hannah did not get akumatized today.” Marinette told Tikki once she was back in her room after the dinner with her parents.

“Chloe caused so many akuma already.” Tikki chirped. “You did a really good job in cheering her up.”

“Yes, and there was Luka and Adrien and Kagami.” Marinette sighed.

Tikki floated over and observed her chosen carefully with her large blue eyes.

“I’m not sad because they are together, they were both happy today.” The girl smiled to her kwami, but the kwami could not help but add ‘and you were there too’. “I made the right decision.” She stated more to assure herself than the tiny red bug.

“And Luka?” Tikki inquired.

“You know how I feel about Luka and Adrien.” Marinette turned away ‘and Chat’ was left floating in the air. The truth was she did not know herself, so if Tikki knew, she better told her, because the girl was lost.

Gabriel was frustrated. He felt strong distress from the same source the whole day, but it was too short lived for him to act on it. He decided to spend his evening transformed and wait for the next emotion he could use.

Adrien was worried. That day he learned how his new classmate had too much trust in the two bullies in class. That day he pushed his childhood friend to be a little less of a brat. Chloe made Sabrina do the dirty work, but Chloe probably did not have a clue what to get for Hannah anyway. Adrien would not know, he would need to do some research and probably ask Marinette for advice.

Adrien got scolded from Nathalie for being unavailable during part of the afternoon (because there was no phone signal in the basement).

“What is the nature of your relationship with Mlle Tsurugi?” Nathalie inquired. “It is inappropriate for you to sneak off with a girl like that. Your father is not happy.”

After she finished with her speech, he was to practise the piano and eat his dinner alone.

“You had all that food in that basement and I got nothing.” Plagg grumbled from his shirt.

“There was no cheese anyway.” Adrien retorted and gave the grumpy kwami one piece of cheese from his plate.

“You could have fed me while your girlfriends were playing with that girl’s hair.” Plagg teased.

“Hannah was almost akumatized today. We were there to cheer her up.” The boy retorted while he finished his food. He went to his room and started to play the piano. But it did not last for long. He was restless.

“There was no akuma attack today. Perhaps it is time to get some air.” Adrien smiled and called for his transformation. He was jumping around and intentionally took a route that would bring him close to Marinette but also pass across the street from Hannah’s window. Thanks to his enhanced hearing he could hear the shouts from afar.

“I am asking you one last time, where did you get this?” A woman stood on a narrow French balcony and pointed to some clothes that were drying. His eyes almost popped out as he recognized the clothes he brought to Hannah.

“A classmate gave me. Those are used. For the boys.” Hannah stuttered out. She was obviously having an argument with her mother.

“And these labels? These were new. You stolen the clothes, Hannah.” The man shouted, Hannah’s father from the looks of it.

“Chloe gave me. She damaged mine in chemistry. I did not steal anything.” The girl defended herself.

Chat placed the call to Ladybug. She was not transformed so he sent a voicemail. He expected an akuma to appear soon.

“Are you telling us, daughter, that your clothes got ruined in chemistry and some colleague bought a replacement for you?” The father spoke calmly.

“Yes. That is what I am telling you. Yes.” She stammered out through the tears. “Why are we having this argument in French?”

“So that our neighbours do not understand that our daughter is a thief and a beggar.” The mother brushed her daughter off.

“I did not beg. I did not ask for any of this.” Hannah defended.

“And the toys and the books?” Her father continued.

“Adrien brought those.” One of the boys could be heard.

“He borrowed me the books. I need them.” Hannah cried.

“Because you don’t know how to speak French.” Her mother spat.

“Well you never taught me mother.” Hannah retorted and looked at her mother with wet eyes.

Ladybug landed quietly beside Chat.

“Expecting an akuma any moment.” He whispered and continued to listen.

“You learned all that stuff on your own, you never bothered to learn French.” Her mother continued. “And you are the only one of us who were born here. Your father and me had to win those scholarships to be able to come here and study medicine ...”

“Wife.” Hannah father called.

“No, she has to hear this until she understands. I got pregnant as a student, I did not have to have you, you know, but I did, and I barely graduated.” The mother continued.

Chat pointed his claw, he saw the butterfly in the darkness. Ladybug caught it before it reached the window. They waited in silence for more, both were curious what was going on with their classmate but could not admit to that.

“Mary.” The father warned his wife.

Hannah was visibly shrinking into herself.

“Why did you leave? To our stupid country in a stupid war that fell apart into more stupid countries?” Hannah protested. Chat admired the girl, he never stood up to his father.

“Because it was the condition of the stupid scholarship your mother and me had.” Her father replied rather calmly with slight mocking in his tone.

“They are not stupid countries.” Her mother shouted.

Ladybug purified another akuma.

“Then why am I not a citizen of any country?” Hannah cried.

“Because the new countries have the new laws and you were not born in any of them.” Her father brushed her off. ”You think you are so smart that any country should be happy to have you. It was you who filled up the paperwork and tricked your mother and me to sign it.”

“The four of us are here legally, as refugees, you are not so keep your mouth shut and do your chores.” Her mother was livid. “If you get caught for what you did it will be your father and me who will have to go to prison and who will take care of your brothers then?”

“And stop begging, that is not how we raised you. I even have a paid job now.” Her father continued.

“I did not beg.” Hannah protested.

“What about all those pastries that appear here on the daily basis?” Mary, the mother, shouted.

“Parents of one of her classmates are bakers.” Her husband replied calmly. “They always have some leftovers ...”

“Leftovers?” The woman screamed. “Ivan, not you too? We are given leftovers like some … like some … when did we become so … we used to be those who helped others … we never needed help … what happened to us?” Mary went to school, she graduated freaking medicine in freaking Parisian university, yeah she brought home a husband a baby and a diploma, but she was Mme medical doctor, married to monsieur medical doctor, they were never rich, but they were not poor either, they were living in a small flat back home, but they were respected. The war started but they felt protected because of their occupation. They were wrong. Life was hard for a while, they lived in a freaking tent for months with no privacy, but then they finally settled in Paris and started over their medical careers. It was difficult to start over because they were considered to have zero experience and had to pass the ECN exams so she got a basic help job in a local emergency unit and her husband was officially learning to become a surgeon although he was already one.

Chat felt guilty, it was him who gave Hannah the stuff she was accused of stealing or begging or whatever. He never assumed she would be in trouble for that. Her parents were too proud to accept such gifts? Too proud to have their kids to accept such things? He did not understand. He got distracted.

Ladybug clenched her fists while her eyesight got blurred due to tears shed for her classmate. She noticed the violet butterfly only against the light in Hannah’s French window. It landed onto whatever Hannah’s mother was holding in her hand, some kind of kitchen utensil.

Hannah never saw how someone got akumatized before. There were videos on the Ladyblog but it was totally different to see it live.

“Mother!” She shouted. “Throw it away, Throw it!” She made a few steps to grab the akumatized item, but the dark bubbles washed over her mother. Her father grabbed Hannah and pushed her away inside of the room, he shouted to the kids to hide while he went towards his akumatized wife.

“Good evening.” Chat Noir greeted as he landed on the balcony railing, jumped inside and pushed the civilian away from the akuma.

Ladybug followed in an instant. Her yoyo was wrapped around whatever weapon appeared in akuma’s hand and Chat used his cataclysm before the akuma had a chance to use it even for the first time.

Ladybug caught the violet butterfly and released it. She called for the miraculous cure by throwing her yoyo in the air.

“What? Who?” the woman stuttered out as she stared at two superheroes in her own home.

“You were akumatized Mary.” Her husband said. Hannah was between terrified because she saw her mother akumatized, guilty because she just had an argument with her parents and elated for the same reason as her brothers.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir in our room, cool.” Robbie exclaimed from his hiding place up on the gallery and behind a mattress that he turned to hide behind.

“Mother got akumatized, wow. You did it Hannah.” Eddie gushed.

“That is not funny boys.” Hannah scolded although her body was still trembling.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were stunned by their own participation in the events that lead to the akumatization.

“Um, what happened?” Chat Noir asked as they often did with the akumatized persons.

“My wife and daughter had an argument. It often happens with two women in the house.” The man replied dismissively.

“Papa” Hannah whined from her place next to the ladder.

“You are Ladybug and Chat Noir and I got akumatized?” The woman finally spoke.

They both confirmed.

“Because of this daughter of mine.” She turned to Hannah.

“Are you sure it was all her fault?” Ladybug straightened and faced Mary. They were the same height. “Your daughter is very smart and wonderful.” She was not sure how to praise Hannah without revealing she knew her. And she could not reveal she knew what they argued about nor clarify it without revealing that both of them were in fact eavesdropping.

“We are sure it was all a misunderstanding.” Chat Noir cut in and smiled. His ring beeped a warning. “Perhaps you should trust her more.” Then he looked at Ladybug and felt warned to stop talking. It was not wise to let the family know just why the heroes were co close.

“We can’t trust her, she lied and cheated.” Mary stared at her daughter. The girl stared at the floor. She had big plans about what she was going to ask the superheroes once she met them. But now they could only think the worst of her.

“Perhaps she had a really good reason to do it.” Ladybug retorted.

Ladybug’s earrings beeped.

“What do you know about what we have been through?” The woman cried. It was obvious she was still distressed. “You are just two child soldiers. We left that at home only to find another war over here. Yes, you bring everything back, but nothing feels exactly the same as it used to.”

“It is not our fault.” Chat protested.

“Right, it is not their fault Mary and we have to go to our shift or we will be late. Thank you very much Ladybug and Chat Noir. I believe it is time for you to go.” The man spoke nervously.

“Are you going to be okay?” Ladybug asked carefully.

“Yes, don’t worry, at work we do not have the time to think about our personal problems.” The man replied dismissively.

After the greetings and more words of encouragement both superheroes were on a rooftop across the street. Chat was the first one to raise his fist to Ladybug to at least pretend everything was business as usual. She bumped his fist and sighed. Chat’s miraculous gave him two more minutes.

“I will feed Plagg and return.” Chat said briefly and vaulted away. Ladybug swung back home to feed Tikki. She returned about ten minutes later only to find Chat Noir on the same rooftop.

“I’m worried, their parents left just left them like that.” Chat sighed.

“They went to work.” Ladybug shrugged. “It was not as if they had a choice.”

They sat there for a while until Hannah went to collect the laundry and noticed them on the rooftop across the street. She motioned for them to come in.

“Hi, I’m Hannah.” The girl introduced herself. Her brothers jumped from the gallery and landed on the bed their parents used to sleep on.

“Hey, you are going to break it.” She protested.

“You do it to sister.” One of the brothers retorted.

“Why are you here?” The other asked.

“Anyone akumatized again?” Hannah whispered because she assumed it was her mother again.

“No, we just wanted to visit you and check on you.” Ladybug smiled. “Is there anything you need?”

Hannah took a deep breath. Her brothers watched her intently. It was now or never.

“I want to ask you something. We come from a country that was destroyed in a war. Many people got killed. Are you able to bring them back, can you launch your cure there, please?” Hannah stuttered out the question she wanted to ask. That was the shortest version of her speech, she concluded there was no point it the endless explanations, it can be done or it can’t.

“My magic does not work that way.” Ladybug smiled. “I am really sorry, but I can only revert the damage done during an akuma attack, or some other magical supervillain.”

Hannah nodded and looked at the floor while her eyes filled with tears quickly. She knew it was unrealistic. Marinette and Adrien already told her something like that.

“There are villains too.” Eddie exclaimed.

“Very bad villains, we saw how they work.” Robbie added.

“We are both very sorry.” Chat continued. “But Ladybug can’t fix what happened in your country.

“I would be very happy if I could.” Ladybug continued with a smile.

“You really can’t?” One of the boys cried disappointedly.

“If I could, I would, believe me.” Ladybug smiled sadly.

There was a moment of silence when everyone just looked at everyone else not sure what to say next.

“Well, I had to ask, sorry. And thank you. For the answer. And my mother. Thank you.” Hanna stuttered with a wet voice through her tears.

“You’re welcome.” Chat grinned.

After that the kids talked for a while until Ladybug decided it was late and a school night and they should all just go to bed. The two superheroes went only to the rooftop across the street and observed the window.

“It makes you feel kind of lucky.” Ladybug smiled warily. “To fight a war where you can bring everything back.”

Chat grinned, he wanted to tell her he felt lucky by her side and other cheesy lines, but he decided against it, he promised himself not to flirt with her so much.

“It makes me want to go there and cataclysm whatever and whoever hurt them.” He whispered.

“You know I could reverse that?” She smirked.

“You can reverse that and you can reverse everything done by magic but the memories.” He sighed.

Ladybug visibly shuddered. “Unfortunately.” She muttered out, she could not shake away memories of Chat Blanc, although there were other akuma battles she would rather forget.

“You would like to forget all this?” Chat asked curiously.

“There are akuma battles I’d prefer to forget.” She replied. “But I will have to forget this all one day, you know?”

“Why?” He tilted his head and looked at her.

“I’m a guardian, remember?” She whispered.

“Oh” he whispered back. Then he looked at her with so much sadness. And he started to spill his thoughts, it did not matter how cheesy it sounded.

“I do not want to forget you, ever. You made me feel alive. This” He wiggled his claws. “has given me more freedom than I could ever imagine. But it would have been worthless without you by my side. So I want to remember, everything. However, if I can help you with the duties of a guardian, please let me know.”

Ladybug smiled but turned away towards the park to hide her tears. She blinked them away quickly. It took some time until she trusted her voice. Chat became worried that he made her angry somehow.

“It’s complicated.” Ladybug replied quietly. “I tried to see if it is possible to share the guardian duties and all I got is that it is complicated.” She turned back towards her partner.

He smiled gently, he mentioned it before, when she was exhausted, so she considered it, she trusted him so much, she just did not find a way. They their separate ways with another fist bump, each of them was sure they prevented a second akuma from the same family that evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now everyone can go and find legal solutions for Hannah :)  
> (Actually, don't bother, it is not going to be important for this fic)  
> The family is naturally messed up, but trying to go through it together.


	17. Just a Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So what the heroes did about what they heard last night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this chapter is sort of not well done (I'm not happy) but I'm out of ideas for these conversations.

Alya was walking to school with Nino.

“Sorry, but I have to ask you this.” Alya took a deep breath. “When Hannah took off her clothes yesterday, did you find her attractive?”

“Nah, did you?” Nino replied dismissively and then teased.

Alya shook her head and gave him slightly disgusted look.

“She does not look attractive at all. Yeah, but I mean, she took off her clothes in front of the whole class, what to the boys think about that?” Alya whispered.

“Well Adrien was worried, Max and Markov were computing just how injured she was, Nathaniel probably drawing the whole incident … I said Chloe sucks and Kim agreed with me.” Nino summarized.

“Yes but … she took off her clothes just like that, it did not bother you?” Alya prodded further.

“She did what she had to do, the teacher complimented her reaction.” Nino shrugged. “Why does it bother you anyway? Are you jealous, babe?”

“Well it is just … Lila said she did it intentionally for the boys to see.” Alya muttered, the construction in her head was tilting and about to fall down. (The first out of many that had to be torn down).

Nino sighed. Lila also claimed her and Adrien were secretly dating or something, ever since the photo shoot, and then Adrien refuted it completely. Ever since that conversation, the boy started to take claims from Lila with a few extra brain cells. So he actually took several seconds to replay the facts in his head.

“Are you telling me Hannah intentionally got splashed by chemicals by Chloe?” Nino fixed his hat.

Alya glared at him and the boy lowered his head. Okay, this was making no sense, but Lila said that Hannah had some hidden motives and Alya was about to find out just what they were.

Strangely awake on time, Marinette was getting ready for school.

“I thought Hannah was going to be akumatized after I told her I can’t fix her country back to the way it used to be.” Marinette told her kwami.

“She is stronger than you thought, Marinette.” Tikki chirped.

“Yeah, she had given up on her dreams at least once.” Marinette said thoughtfully. “Her whole family had to give up on their dreams.”

“Yes.” Tikki encouraged the girl to continue with her line of thought.

“But giving up on your dreams is hard. Does that mean that I have to give up on my dreams, about Adrien?” Marinette whispered and stared at her Kwami. “I should give up on Adrien and focus on Luka ...” ‘Or Chat’ an annoying voice in her head added to that. Or perhaps she should just give up on the boys completely and focus on her duties and responsibilities.

“Hannah has different dreams now.” The tiny goddess of destruction reminded her.

“That are unreachable too.” Marinette sighed. “Like not bringing back her country.”

“That one is for the best Marinette.” Tikki chirped.

“Well I better start going or I will be late in the end.” Marinette checked the time and picked up her backpack.

“Ladybug trusts me.” Were the first words Adrien spoke after he opened his eyes, on his own and before the alarm clock went off. Plagg groaned in response and muttered something about pining and mushy stuff.

“She considered to share the guardian duties with me Plagg. Can it be done?” The boy poked his grumpy kwami.

“Camembert.” Plagg pronounced dramatically with his eyes closed as he pretended to be talking in his sleep.

The boy jumped to his feet and threw a triangle at his sleeping kwami. Without opening his eyes, Plagg opened his mouth and the triangle landed safely inside, he swallowed it whole and licked his lips.

“Ahem?” Adrien stared at his kwami.

“That piece of knowledge is not accessible to kwami, that is the guardian stuff, just like the enhancement juices.” Plagg spoke while he squinted one eye open at his chosen.

Adrien threw himself at his kwami, but the target simply phased into the bed.

“You are not the god of destruction, you are the god of gluttony!” The boy teased and stomped away to his bathroom.

After his schedule ‘fencing, Chinese, dinner, piano’ and a lonely breakfast (with more cheese for Plagg) Adrien was in the car and remembered other events from the last night.

“I want to find a way to help Hannah, Plagg.” The boy whispered. “I should tell her parents what I did and why I did it.”

“That ...” Plagg retorted quickly to the first sentence (he was about to say something like haven’t you helped her enough or that only got her in trouble in the first place) but then thought about it more.. “Just might be a good idea kid.”

“And Marinette, she could to it too.” Adrien added. “We could go together and ...”

“And just how do you plan to do it without revealing your identity and the fact that Chat Noir eavesdropped on some random civilian argument kid?” Plagg teased.

“Ugh, I’ll think of something.” Adrien groaned.

Hannah hurried her brothers to school that morning. Her parents did not return from the night shift before the three of them left. She left her two brothers and run to the bakery. Sabine waved her to come in, she just served some customers and there was nobody waiting at that moment.

“Marinette, your friend Hannah is here.” Sabine called to the kitchen.

Marinette practically ran out and Tom peeked to wave help before he disappeared back to the ovens. Hannah was vaguely aware of everything around her, the smell of pastries consumed her senses.

“Good morning Tom, Sabine, Marinette.” Hannah greeted and took a deep breath.

Sabine quickly put a pain au chocolate in her hand. Marinette carried another in her hand and a brown paper bag. Hannah collected herself as she wanted to speak what she came for.

“Thank you maman, we are going.” Marinette greeted and pulled Hannah out from the shop before the girl had a chance to speak.

“Actually.” Hannah complained, she stared at the shop door while Marinette was pulling her away. Hannah looked at the shop door, then at the pain au chocolate in her hand, longingly, then she finally turned in the direction they were walking. The internal battle in her was too strong. She had to ask Marinette to stop bringing her pastries, she loved them, her family loved them, but her mother got akumatized last night and that was just too much.

Marinette sensed why Hannah was there, she did not want to give the girl the chance to speak, that was the plan A. She already had a plan B and C in line, she was Ladybug.

Adrien popped out from his car just in front of the girls, Marinette was startled, blushed and finally stopped and dropped Hannah’s hand. Hannah needed a fraction of the second more to stop her movement so she ran into Marinette who consequently bumped her face straight into the boy’s chest. The boy caught both girls, laughed greeted them.

Several pairs of eyes were on the three students. Olive green eyes narrowed and their owner skidded into school. Icy blue ones stared for a second before their owner was dragged into the school. Nino and Alya watched from afar ans Adrien led the two girls over the stairs and through the school gates. Finally, Hannah saw her chance to speak.

“We need to talk, about this.” She turned to her pain au chocolate, it was so warm, it smelled so nicely. She was so sorry to say this. “Um, pastries, please stop bringing pastries? My mother was angry.” She looked at her feet. The pain au chocolate in her hand smelled so nicely.

Adrien froze, he expected to have more time, to warn Marinette, to prevent the discord between his friends.

Marinette stilled, her eyes in panic, that was the conversation she wanted to avoid.

“You don’t like them?” She asked timidly, stupid, stupid, stupid question.

“Of course yes! I mean no! Ummm … I like them. Brothers like them. Papa likes them. Mother does not.” She stuttered out. Adrien decided that he just had to fix this and fast.

“So I can bring the pastries to you and your brothers and your papa?” Marinette offered.

“No, my mother she ...” Hannah looked at the pain au chocolate sadly.

Adrien reached into the brown paper bag and produced a croissant.

“My father does not like it when I eat these, but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, you know.” The boy smiled a Chat Noir crooked smile and bit off a piece of pastry.

Marinette smiled at the boy, she was lost somewhere as she looked at him.

Hannah turned her eyes from Adrien back to the pastry in her hand. She took a deep breath, exhaled and slowly bit off a piece and chewed. It felt so good. Why did the disobedience and not doing the right thing taste so good. Her lips curved in a small smile.

“We will think of something to do.” Marinette patted her shoulder.

“Okay.” Hannah replied timidly and bit off more.

They continued in comfortable silence. Adrien remembered how Hannah was scolded for the new clothes. He remembered how he wanted to do something about it, to talk to her parents, if possible.

“Your parents work night shifts?” Adrien asked, that was the information he learned yesterday as Adrien he could start from there and learn when he could find them home.

“Yes, they are still at work.” She checked the time. “For one more hour.”

Marinette wanted to switch the subject away from Hannah’s parents and the argument because the girl was obviously stressed by the conversation. She noticed Hannah was wearing the pink tunic and blue leggings Marinette gave her.

“Did your brothers like their clothes?” Marinette blurted out (Ladybug was not there to hear that part of the argument). Adrien paled. That was exactly what he did not want to bring about.

“They like it, it fits them.” She replied with a hint of sadness in her voice. (Take ‘it fits them’ anywhere between they can zip it up and it is not falling off their hips).

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, he needed to steer this conversation away and fast.

“And this tunic and the tights, they are really nice.” She continued, but she looked away.

“What is wrong Hannah?” Marinette asked gently. “I’m sorry I could not get you new clothes like Chloe.”

Adrien wanted to jump out of his skin, that was exactly what she was not supposed to say.

Hannah raised her eyes, there was only one emotion, fear.

“No no no, it is fine, used is fine, really. I like it. I love it. It is so beautiful.” Hannah cried, she was not about to hurt her friend just because of her parents, she could not do that, fist the pastries, then the clothes.

“What is beautiful?” Alya cut in as she and Nino finally caught up to the three of them in the school yard.

“This.” Hannah showed her tunic. “And this.” she pointed to the flowers on her tights.

“I got her this outfit when Chloe ruined her clothes yesterday.” Marinette explained.

Nino was walking next to Adrien behind the girls.

“You designed this?” Alya exclaimed while they were entering the locker room.

Marinette confirmed with a wide smile and walked towards her locker.

“Like the designer like the model. That is the only kind of _designer_ clothes for them. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” Chloe commented so loudly that everyone could hear.

“Exactly, and I find both really amazing.” Adrien cut in, glared at his childhood friend for a second before he proceeded to the two girls and wrapped an arm around each of them. Hannah did not understand what was happening, she looked at Marinette and Adrien, confused. Marinette blushed on her cloud nine unaware of her surroundings, Adrien smirked towards Chloe who huffed and walked away.

Nobody noticed Lila with narrowed eyes and clenched fists.

They were leaving the locker room and Lila sneaked up to her prey.

“Hannah” She called quietly and sweetly tot he girl who was just behind the group. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Oh Lila! Good morning Lila!” Hannah exclaimed loudly.

That was just too lout to go unnoticed by the rest of the group. Adrien flipped around in a split of a second. Marinette groaned and frowned towards the liar. Alya raised her eyebrows. Nino observed patiently. All four of them were standing and looking at the exchange.

“You see.” Lila fluttered her eyelashes, her original plan to confront Hannah one on one had backfired. “I have so many obligations, so many charity events to attend to, I mean Prince Ali sent his private jet for me only the other day and ...” Lila was telling her tall tales, but Hannah was not able to discern any meaning. The events from last night were rather fresh in her memory.

It took a heart beat for all her fears to flash before her eyes and then to bury them deep. Lila was a daughter of a diplomat, and worked in charities, she could find out and reveal her secret for sure. Then Lila would hate her, think low of her, expose her, dump her parents into a prison and whatever unknown awaited her and her brothers, she needed to make herself look good. “Do you need help with your homework?”

“Homework?” That was not part of her plan. She wanted something else. But she had all these unfilled worksheets and Hannah was just there. “How nice of you to offer to solve it for me. I was just so busy with organizing those climate actions, you know, Clara Nightingale sent a private jet just for me and ...” Lila passed her worksheets in Hannah’s hands as soon as she started speaking. Since the girl got lost in the speech in the middle of the first sentence, she focused on the worksheets. She filled in her own worksheets and returned them, but she could easily do these from her memory.

Marinette wished she could switch off just like Hannah just did then she started to make a plan, she had to make Hannah see through Lila’s lies. Adrien had a gloomy face, Hannah was being used. He looked at Marinette with worried face and back towards Hannah. He had to do something, but what, just what was it that he could do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you got just how socially awkward Hannah is (she is not aware when she is faced with a straight on insult!) partially due to her poor language skills and that it actually helps her not to get akumatized.  
> Also, her adoration of Lila goes so far that she is intimidated by her (by her supposed achievements and possibility to disclose her as a fraud) and is ready to offer the only thing that could make her happy.


	18. Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The school day, Adrien in a protection and fix it mode, Marinette is clumsy and Lila schemes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one looks in a good shape, I just hope that flour and flower are in the right spots.

Hannah wanted to explain the tasks to Lila, but Lila was not interested. “Just fill in the worksheets for me, please, I could not possibly. The arthritis in my hand is getting worse I can’t even feel it. I could not possibly hold a pen today.” Lila was in her element.

“Arthritis?” Hannah asked as she thought she heard the word wrong.

“Yes I have this most awful arthritis, I used to play the piano so well, but then the illness prevented me from playing at all. It gets so bad I can hardly take notes some days.” Lila continued to talk, but Hannah was already lost on her. She could ask her parents for advice on a young girl with arthritis, she always helped her friends like that.

Hannah filled in the computation part of the worksheets rather quickly, but then she had to write in her own words the explanation of certain phenomena. She scribbled it rather quickly as she wanted to be finished before the roll call was finished.

Lila checked her worksheets carefully, it looked correct, all the fields were filled in, the handwriting was neat and easily readable. She handed over her worksheets and returned to her seat with a sly smile and a warning glare towards Marinette.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, partially because Marinette refused to leave Hannah alone. The grades for their first exercise in English were back, the students were given worksheets for homework and a lecture. Hannah was happy with her first results.

Marinette groaned at the mistake she made. Hannah put her paper on the side and leaned over the desk to see what bothered her colleague in front of her. Lila took the opportunity and took a photo of what Hannah wrote.

Ivan noticed what she did and raised his eyebrows at her. Lila just faked and innocent smile and put her index finger over her lips. Ivan frowned. Then he looked back on his paper. He expected a better grade.

Finally, the last class they had was the math and the test results were back. Alix and Kim were crossing their fingers, more for their bet than for their own test results. The rest of the class was tense with anticipation. The teacher, monsieur Poincare, looked rather relaxed.

“I know we had an akuma attack during our last class so I will let those of you who failed to take the test again. Those of you who think you could do better are also invited to stay. The test will take place exactly after we finish with this class and the rest of your colleagues can go home.”

There were several groans from the students, because it was Friday afternoon and nobody wanted to stay in school longer.

“Now I want to praise those who got one hundred percent.” The teacher announced with a dramatic pause. “Max and Hannah.”

Alix and Kim instantly started whispering, they argued if that was a tie or not. (Max decided it was a tie, for their bet, he decided there was no competition between him and Hannah).

The rest of the class did better than expected, save a disappointment from Alya (too busy with the Ladyblog after the akuma attack), a sigh from Nathaniel (‘your doodles are beautiful but please solve the problems too’ the teacher wrote), Ivan who messed up a few tasks and a groan from Kim.

“Finally, I would like to stress that these were not group assignments and that you were expected to solve the problems yourself. I understand that some of you asked your colleagues for help, but that does not mean you can simply give me a paper where they solved the problems you got and explained the procedure for you.” The teacher glared towards Lila, but did not call her out. “If this happens again, I will have to call out some names. And, for the rest of you, you should not do the homework nor the other assignments of your classmates.” Hannah was shrinking in her chair under his gaze. She knew she was guilty as charged and this was exactly not what she wanted to achieve.

Then the teacher started to teach a new lesson until the bell rang for the end of the school day (for most).

Lila had to stay and take the test again. Alya was also ready to try to get a better grade for that test. Kim, Nathaniel and Ivan stayed too.

“Hey everybody.” Adrien called in the locker room. “Tomorrow is the first fencing tournament of the season, here in school, it starts at eleven, so if you have nothing better to do ...” The boy smiled.

“Of course, we would love to come, dude.” Nino grinned.

“Yeah, we will all be here, right Marinette?” Alya nudged Marinette with her elbow. Marinette rubbed the place where she got nudged, smiled and nodded while her face turned pink. Why was she blushing again, she was never going to get over her crush this way. And why was Alya teasing her about this, she was sort of supposed to move on and give a chance to Luka. She had to put her heart on hold, this was just too much. Now she saw Adrien every day again.

“Hannah are you coming?” Adrien singled out the girl.

“I … um … my brothers?” She stuttered out.

“Bring them too.” He smiled.

“And you are all invited to the Kitty Section rehearsal on the Liberty in the afternoon.” Juleka muttered.

“Ugh, I have Chris.” Nino complained.

“And I have the twins.” Alya groaned.

Marinette pulled Hannah to the side and asked quietly “Hannah, would you like to apply for a school tutor for you French?”

“Tutor?” Hannah asked.

“Yes, for your supplement classes, perhaps working with a tutor would be the best for you.” Marinette smiled. She got the idea from Luka the day before.

“I had a tutor for French.” Kagami spoke from just behind the two girls. Both girls were startled and Kagami smirked at her achievement. “I would recommend.”

“Well, okay then.” Hannah was still not sure if she should take on the offer.

“Hey Kagami.” Adrien greeted ready to go fencing.

“Hi Adrien! I was just explaining to Hannah the benefits of having a tutor for French.” Kagami greeted back.

“And the school could provide her one, it would be another student from school who would volunteer one hour per week.” Marinette explained in her class president duty style.

“One hour per week?” Kagami asked incredulously.

“Which student is going to tutor her?” Adrien inquired.

“Um, we will see?” Marinette shrugged, she was reluctant to take on one more responsibility.

Adrien, on the other hand, thought how he just might take on one hour per week, he would spend more time in school and invent some kind of excuse for his father, like the excellent students just have to do it or something else. Kagami pulled him away to go for the fencing practise.

“You want to tutor her?” Kagami said as a matter of a fact.

Adrien smiled sheepishly. “Am I so obvious?”

“Yes.” She replied flatly.

Marinette and Hannah went to the office of principal Damocles and Hannah filled out an application before they went home with a promise to see each other the next day.

The fencing practice was particularly short and efficient that day due to the forthcoming tournament. Kagami was in the zone and cut the talking to a minimum. They were dismissed after a few quick duels with equal number of points for both sides.

“You are not very talkative today.” Adrien noted while they walked back to the lockers.

“We have the tournament tomorrow.” Kagami was not happy. “We should have practised more.”

“Um, yes, we could have practised more.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Want to fetch some ice cream after this?”

Kagami smiled before she went back to her usual serious expression.

“No, I always practise in the park with mother before a tournament, she will be expecting me soon.” Kagami replied without any emotion in her tone.

“Well, okay then, have fun.” Adrien greeted. He went straight into the office of principal Damocles, still wearing his fencing gear. He made a deal to take Hannah and only her as a tutor, it was not the usual practice, but Adrien negotiated anyway, because he wanted to be sure that he would never get to tutor Lila.

Adrien changed and got into the car.

“We have a little time, would you mind if we stopped by Hannah on our way to the mansion?” Adrien asked his driver as nicely as he could. The driver grunted back and stopped by one shop, he was out of the shop in less than a minute with a small flower in a pot and a box of chocolates. Then they continued to the building where Hannah lived.

Adrien was followed by his bodyguard who carried the flower and the chocolates. The boy wondered why his driver did it but kept his thoughts to himself. It was not as if he expected the man to actually explain himself even if he asked.

They both knocked on the door together.

“Adrien.” Hannah whispered when she opened the door. Soon her father appeared in the door frame.

“Papa, this is Adrien, my classmate.” Hannah whispered excitedly.

“Would you like to come in?” The man asked quietly.

“Actually I just wanted to tell you … “ Adrien was looking at Hannah’s father. “I wanted to apologize for the actions of my classmate yesterday, Chloe Bourgeois, her poor judgement had lead to your daughter’s injuries and material damage. She, Marinette and me all reciprocated for the damage she caused.”

“Thank you son, Adrien?” The man spoke. “It was a lot. Thank you for helping my daughter.”

“And please keep it all, we want you to keep it.” Adrien cut in. “Also, if you need anything, please let us know.”

“You are very kind young boy.” Hannah’s father spoke.

Then Adrien’s bodyguard grunted a few words and handed over the box of chocolates and the flower. Hannah’s eyes went wide. Adrien was puzzled. The two men exchanged a few short sentences before they hugged each other.

“Your bodyguard speaks one of the languages spoken in my country.” Hannah whispered to Adrien. “I don’t speak it, but I can understand.”

They greeted each other and left. Adrien’s bodyguard kept patting the boys shoulder all the way to the car, his eyes wet with a small smile on his lips.

Marinette burst into the bakery after she left her school bag in her room. She was ready to do all the packing for the orders and then deliver a box of pastries to Hannah. She already invented a story how it was some kind of local custom, that she absolutely had to deliver pastries to her classmates and friends, especially those who lived so close, that it was absolutely crucial for them to accept those small gifts of pastries and she made a mental note to remove those specimens that got visibly damaged.

Well, that was the plan, the execution was something else.

She was helping out her father by adding some flour to a bowl. She added the flour to the bowl perfectly and then tiptoed away in all her glory, she merely glanced towards the ovens, tripped, flailed her hands and the bag of flour hit a table and some flour slipped on the floor.

That was not so bad, save there was no time to clean it up.

Then she was bringing her mother a glass of water to drink, well she also carried a glass of water for her papa and herself because everyone should drink sufficient water during the day. Needles to say, three glasses, two hands (no tray) and factor in Marinette, one of the glasses fell to the floor. Fortunately, they were using those permanent plastic glasses (do not break, wash in a dishwasher, perfect), so Marinette delivered the water to her parents, wiped the floor quickly with one sweep of a cloth and was ready for the next task.

Which was to take the macarons from the oven and place them on the table to cool off.

That was four trays of macarons that baked on different levels.

Tray one. Pink. Fine.

Tray two. Green. Fine.

Tray three. Red. Fine.

Tray four. Yellow. A patch of wet floor and she landed on her but straight into that pile of flour, fortunately flour and water did not get in contact. The tray of undamaged yellow macarons was safely in her hands. Her behind hurt, her pride was injured but the macarons were whole.

She put the next round of macarons in the oven and continued to deliver the baked goods into the shop for her mother. The shop was crowded, it was a Friday afternoon with fine weather outside. Everyone dropped in for a snack or a piece of pastry to take home for a quick meal before going out.

Lila was well aware that she probably failed her math test. Why the teacher checked the handwriting and why did Hannah write those instructions? Those were even written in pencil, Lila could have simply erased them, but she did not and the teacher knew it was not Lila who solved those problems. Well, Lila had a solution for every problem, she blamed her wrist and her arthritis. ‘I could not write this myself so I dictated Hannah what to write, you have to take into account those scores, they are mine.’ She whined to the teacher. ‘It was Hannah who copied my results, that is how she got one hundred percent.’ The excuse did not work on the math teacher (who not only clearly remembered, but in fact noted on the worksheet that Hannah handed in her worksheet early, during the class, while Lila handed it over a day later and he only accepted it because of the akuma attack). But the act definitely worked on principal Damocles, he promised to talk to the math teacher. Ms Bustier had left already for the weekend, otherwise Lila would have included her in the scheme. Well, there was always Monday.

That was strike one, Hannah was a cheater.

She wanted to make Hannah look like a bully, fake an injury again, but the act the girl did in the science class when she stripped off her clothes was just a gift from the heavens, Lila filled in an anonymous complaint about that and she just had to wait for the outcome. She was little disappointed that the fallout did not start already that morning, but the paperwork probably got stalled somewhere, it was the first week of school anyway.

Strike two, Hannah bullied her classmates by exposing her naked body parts.

And now the stealing. She needed to make Hannah look like a thief. But this time it was not going to be as if Hannah stole from Lila, oh no, Lila was going to steal something from someone else and then frame it to Hannah. Stealing from Chloe would have been ideal, but with Sabrina as her bodyguard, it was the mission impossible and Lila was no Tom Cruise, although she claimed she was going to spend this weekend with the actor in Venice. Therefore, Lila decided to go for an option B, which was to steal something from Marinette. And that was how she ended up in the bakery. The luck must have been on her side because, from the crowd, Lila took a really good photo of Marinette with her butt white from flour.

She was about to sneak into the bakery and the flat upstairs when Luka entered the shop and observed her. The boy simply stared at her, there was no chance for her to slip unnoticed now, Marinette was in the shop, Lila could only leave, so she did. Well, she postponed to finalize her plan in school on Monday. Or, perhaps, she could modify her plan and switch from Marinette to Adrien for her plan B.

Lila was going to get Hannah expelled, and the Adrien and Marinette were going to do anything to make Lila bring their little girl back to school, she was getting more slaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we get some rest from Lila for a few chapters.  
> Imagine Adrien's bodyguard left that country years ago and settled in Paris.


	19. Evading Blows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cookies and coffee, akuma fight, fencing tournament and having fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might be confused by the 'change in personality'. There is none, the guests are treated politely while sweets and little family persuasion might lead to a change in attitude.

Evading blows.

Marinette was as awkward as ever while she evaded turning her back to Luka while her behind was white with flour (Sabine warned her). She changed and joined her parents who decided to have a short walk and pay a visit to Hannah with a hope to meet her parents. Busy with changing her clothes, Marinette never checked how damaged the pastries are.

“Maman, papa, perhaps we should tell them that they have to take the pastries, that this is some local custom, that we have to do it, that ...” Marinette spoke quickly on their walk through the park.

“Are her parents embarrassed to take gifts?” Sabine inquired.

Marinette confirmed after she found no other way out.

“Just leave it to me.” Sabine smiled and winked to her husband.

“Pastries, pastries!” The boys cheered from the moment they opened the door. Hannah just smiled widely and greeted her classmate. The three of them entered and got seated at the small table, the boys and Hannah removed their homework to make space for the pastries.

The introductions between the adults were exchanged with polite smiles and heartily handshakes, the coffee was brewed, the tea was made, kids got their juice and everyone got a place to sit (adults at the table, kids on the ladder that lead to the gallery). The magnificent and long expected moment had arrived. With a ceremonial ‘Ta Dah” Hannah’s father opened the box with pastries.

To Marinette’s utter horror, there were several oddly shaped macarons on top, and one broken specimen.

“Macarons.” The boys exclaimed.

“This one is broken, it is not for you.” The father teased, took it and put it into his mouth in an instant. “Nobody saw this, right?” He winked to Tom. Marinette was relieved, there was no negative reaction so far, at least from the father. Both girls looked ad Hannah’s mother and what was she going to do next.

“Hey, I like the yellow ones.” Mary complained and looked into the box. “Sweets, I love sweets.” She whispered gently. “So many, where do I even start?” Her attitude was unrecognizable.

“Perhaps our guests should start.” Hannah’s father offered.

After a few awkward moments of hesitation everyone was taking pieces of pastry from the box, eating, chatting and drinking. The adults had a conversation of their own, while Marinette and Hannah climbed all the way up and sat on Hannah’s bed. They played one of the board games from the package that Adrien brought. Marinette won, but she had a feeling Hannah did not even bother to win against her. Marinette and her parents left after half an hour of pleasant socializing.

If only Hawk Moth bothered not to strike during dinner, but that was exactly what happened. And this particular akuma caused the loss of electricity around the city centre. Tom insisted on having a candle lit dinner and Marinette suffered for she could not even finish her meal early and leave with an excuse of homework.

“How would you write it now, when there is no light, you can write it when the electricity returns, dear, you have the whole weekend.” Sabine said.

“I should leave you to finish your romantic evening alone.” Marinette tried next after a minute or two.

“Oh, please don’t tell us that we are making you uncomfortable, dear.” Tom teased.

“Well, then, I won’t tell you.” Marinette teased back.

“You can go to your room if you want it so much.” Her mother winked and Marinette did not wait one second for them to change their minds. “I’m sure she is going to spend hours on the phone with the girls.” Sabine told her husband.

Well that was just the first of her problems.

She transformed and climbed up from her room on muscle memory.

Outside, there was only darkness. The sun had set, the sky was covered with a layer of clouds and no electricity meant no lights, anywhere. Ladybug did not have the night vision. She took a few deep breaths and flung her yoyo blindly. She did not see where she was going. At one point she was free falling and did not have a clue what to do next. She only hoped that her magical suit would prevent her from injuries.

And then she slammed into a very familiar body.

“Do you see where we are?” Chat asked in the darkness after he swallowed all the flirting and puns.

“I do not see anything.” Ladybug admitted. They rolled over each other and stopped with Chat Noir on top of her. She did see something, she saw his eyes, but that was it.

“That is why it took you so long. I was looking for you. This is the street where we first met. You fell on me from the sky then too.” He said as he raised to his feet, there was longing in his tone that he could not hide.

Ladybug paled, did he see that she started from Marinette’s rooftop terrace?

“Let me help you.” Chat took her hand in the dark and pulled her up on her feet.

“Have you seen the akuma?” She asked.

“He calls himself Powerless.” Chat informed. “There is no electricity, and he even destroyed a few battery powered systems. The hospitals are on the power generators and we have to keep the akuma away from those.”

“And the akumatized object?” She inquired further.

“He has a weapon in a shape of a plug that shoots rays.” Chat grinned and motioned with his hands for a while until he realized that Ladybug could not see anything from his show.

“Can you fetch it when I call it?” Ladybug asked before she called for her lucky charm.

Chat caught the giant reflector, similar to one that Chloe used to lure Ladybug.

They turned it on and waited. Then Ladybug took a glass table from a nearby cafe and placed it over the reflector.

“That should refract the beams.” Ladybug whispered.

“So we hide and wait.” Chat concluded. He knew Ladybug had only five minutes. “Will you have enough time?”

“I don’t know. I’m kind of useless in this battle. At least you are not the bait this time.” That statement was begging for some cheeky retort about how he was attractive bait to take all those blows, but there was something in her tone that prevented him.

“At least you are not the bait either.” He muttered back. His brain reminded the boy about all those times when he felt useless.

The akuma was there just in time to get caught, Chat destroyed the akumatized object and Ladybug needed the reflector to actually locate the violet butterfly, catch it and cleanse it.

“Miraculous Ladybug” She shouted and launched the heavy reflector in the air.

Whatever was broken was fixed and the lights were back on after the moment Ladybug’s earrings issued their one minute warning.

“I’m sorry Chaton, I really have to bug out” Ladybug offered her fist. Chat bumped it, wished her good night and went to console the tired electricity worker.

Ladybug barely landed on her rooftop terrace before her transformation faded.

“I’m sorry Tikki, I could not find my purse or a cookie for the recharge in the darkness.”

“That is okay.” Tikki chirped and yawned. Marinette landed on her bed and produced a macaron from a small box on her night stand. Both the girl and her kwami were asleep very soon.

That Saturday morning Hannah took her brothers to the community centre, she was on a mission. All three of them were going to take French lessons that included speaking to a native speaker, regular practice, no more occasional small talk in a shop or in the centre. She signed up their names, but the list was long. She was told not to hope for much any time soon.

The three of them went to the community room. Hannah painted again, more pictures from her nightmares, destroyed buildings and blood, dark shades of grey and red. She was quick, there were not too many details on any of her aquarelles. She avoided the details, she pushed them away from her memories. Sometimes she would paint the scenery she encountered on her way in shades of green and blue. It was almost ten in the morning when her art teacher found her.

“Hannah” He greeted with a smile. “I see you still paint here.”

“Yeah, I do not have the tools nor space at home.” She smiled. She also had no time when she remembered how many things she had to learn and how much homework she had and she needed twice more time just to understand what was required of her to do in several subjects.

The teacher observed the paintings.

“Would you please sign these two too? The centre would like to use any art created here to support its activities.” The art teacher smiled gently. “We plan to make an auction next week and collect donations to maintain this centre operational. We all volunteer here, but there are still bills to pay and equipment to purchase.”

Hannah smiled and signed the paintings. At least there was some use for her work. The teacher let them dry and they talked a bit about the colours and the brush strokes. Then she helped him with the captions for her paintings, she was amazed how many got collected over those few months she was in Paris. She used to come each day with her brothers, she would paint and learn a little French each day. But that was the summer programme, she was in school and needed a different schedule.

She checked the time. It was time for her to leave as another group was taking the premisses of the art room for their lesson in painting.

Hannah picked up her two brothers from the game room. It was time to go for the fencing tournament in her school. She was tempted to just leave her brothers there to play games, but she promised her parents to take care of them. She was relieved, she expected them to whine and disobey as she often had hard time to separate them from gaming utilities.

Marinette waited for the rest of the class in front of the school.

“What is so special about that girl and why couldn’t you be so nice to Lila?” Alya demanded from Marinette.

“I can’t tell you Alya why Hannah is so interesting.” Marinette smiled to her friend. “As for Lila, you will have to see for yourself.” She muttered as she turned away.

“Yeah I see for myself.” Alya crossed her arms, she was already tired of the same story. “I wonder why you are not jealous of Hannah, Adrien obviously pays too much attention to her. Even Lila noticed that. That new girl is hiding something and I know it.”

Marinette just smiled. It was not as if Hannah was hiding anything, she was like an open book, just each of the pages was a new surprise. And the worst thing was, Hannah would have made such a nice story for Alya, genuine and exciting, not pompous and fabricated.

“Hi Marinette, Hi Alya” Hannah greeted and introduced her brothers.

Alya gaped at the two boys before she shook the offered hands.

Rose and Juleka joined together with Luka who just tied up his bike.

“I finished my deliveries early today so that I can watch this.” Luka smiled at Marinette.

After quick greetings and introductions they went to the gym to watch the tournament.

The whole class was cheering for Adrien who bowed to them after the duel he won. Adrien approached his classmates and took off the head gear. Luka was shouting and screaming so much that Marinette put her finger in her ear that was closer to the musician.

Adrien smiled and waved to everybody.

“Hey, Hannah, you brought your brothers with you.” The boy shouted.

“Hi Adrien.” Both of them greeted. “Nice fight.”

“Are we going to the Liberty later?” Adrien asked everyone present. The members of the Kitty Section nodded, Marinette too.

Then it was turn for Kagami to engage in a duel. She fought efficiently and won points easily, Marinette lead the noisy cheering, Luka joined in even louder than her and soon the rest of the class was shouting Kagami’s name. (I have no idea if it is allowed to cheer during a fencing duel, it is not allowed in tennis while the ball is in the court, but yes after each point that is won.)

Then Kagami bowed and approached to greet them.

“Wow, fantastic.” Luka screamed carried away by the fierceness of the fight and everyone around him. Marinette was surprised by the energy Luka invested into cheering for his friends, he was usually so quiet and calm.

Adrien made a deal with Nathalie to have some time to celebrate the outcome. The whole group waited in front of the school for the two fencers to arrive and they walked together towards the boat on the Seine.

“That boy looks just like you Adrien.” Robbie said and pointed his finger towards a giant add on a rooftop across the Seine.

“Hey, his name is Adrien too.” Eddie noticed.

It was a perfume add.

Most of the teenagers present were snickering.

Hannah stared at the add, then at her classmate and then back.

“It is you?” She stammered through an awkward silence.

“That is a picture of me.” Adrien grinned. “The real thing is right over here.” He pointed at himself.

Marinette felt embarrassed for her adoration of Adrien adds, but they were a replacement for the real thing.

The boys were looking around and counted how many Adrien adds they could see and continued to do so until they reached the boat. Then they argued who saw more and who was the first to see that or this particular giant poster.

Hannah was silent, she felt slightly ashamed that she had such a famous classmate and she did not have a clue. No wonder he laughed at her when she did not know his name. But it was not a bad kind of laugh, she knew the boy wanted to be friends with her. Still, she felt guilty and stupid and as if she should have known. She passed by those posters, but she never paid much attention on what was depicted on those advertisements, nice boy, wide smile, wanted to sell something.

“Did you know?” Hannah whispered to Marinette.

“Yes.” Marinette was biting her lip and the inside of her cheek not to start laughing. Did she know? She knew the commercial by heart, she memorized it on the first day of its release, just like hundreds of his fans, she was there when he was hiding from them, what a bad timing to have the release of the new perfume add and the only projection of his mother’s film on the same day.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hannah asked quietly.

Marinette stared with her eyes wide. Really, why she did not tell Hannah that their classmate was famous? It never occurred to her to make it relevant. Besides, he did not tell it himself.

“Because that.” Adrien stood in between the two girls and pointed towards the add. “It is not important. Okay. It is just something I do because my father wants me. I don’t love it. I _mostly_ don’t hate it. That is probably how you feel about doing your laundry.”

Hannah nodded then looked at the giant add on a building nearby. “Doing laundry.”

“Actually, doing laundry with you in that basement was more fun than filming that add.” The boy continued. He beamed at Hannah, her brothers, Luka, Kagami, Marinette, everyone who was in that basement with him. They all smiled and chuckled and winked and sighed, but there was a hint of something else in their eyes, a realisation, he admitted to something he never mentioned before.

Kagami stood nearby and observed the exchange with a mix of awe and incredulity. Well, she had to admit that she had fun in that basement too. She spent time with other kids, more or less her age, played games, shared treats, it was fun. Doing laundry was fun, she decided to try that at home.

Marinette was amazed and confused, she did not expect that working in fashion was all fun and nice, but she never thought that Adrien did not enjoy working in the fashion industry, because she enjoyed designing so much. Besides, the boy in his position should have the world before his feet and choose what he wanted to do and who he wanted to be. She assumed only his freedom of movement was limited for security reasons (that demonstrated so obviously when they were running away from a mob of his fans). And considerably for reasons of his father’s paranoid fears as the boy had very limited opportunities to spend time with his friends.

Luka looked at Adrien with knowing eyes, as if he could see into the boy’s soul. All those adds, all those adds where Adrien looked as if he was embodiment of joy, of pure happiness, were in fact a testimony of his indifference to the profession and the activity he was pushed into, which was ultimately sad. Luka’s hands started to play a melody in the thin air, he needed his guitar, he needed to embrace the melody of his friend and let it come to life. Luka ruffled Adrien’s hair to calm down his nervous fingers. Adrien retaliated and poked his ribs. Soon the boys were teasing and pulling pranks on each other while Marinette and Kagami laughed.

Hannah looked at her two brothers teasing each other about the number of posters they counted and then at the two teens who were poking each other and laughed about it. Then she sighed.

“What is wrong?” Anarka asked.

“Mother is right, they never grow up.” Hannah shrugged and smiled.

“And that, my dear, is a good thing.” The woman replied as she grabbed the girl by her shoulders and took a good look at her. “So you are Hannah, my daughter’s new classmate? Welcome to Liberty, I am Anarka and this is my ship.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A take on that love polygon in the next chapter.


	20. Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids have fun on Liberty, and a few serious conversations.   
> Lot's of blushing in this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm treating them as fourteen to sixteen year old.   
> Hope I cleaned out the most embarrassing errors.

Liberty

The Kitty Section was playing their instruments and trying to agree on what to do with the melody while Rose was modifying the text to adapt. Marinette sat at the floor with her legs crossed before her and was trying to design the outfits for the next video of the band. Trying was the key word. She listed a set of themes and wishes from the band, Adrien insisted on a mask that would cover his face (and he additionally asked that it was not black for some reason). Concentrating on what she was doing had proven to be a problem. Because each time she raised her eyes towards Adrien or Luka, the boys were looking at her, Adrien even bothered to wink.

Anarka insisted on giving Kagami, Hannah and her brothers a small tour of the boat and told them stories about pirates and Freedom. It was easy to laugh at her antics, the woman spoke and acted as if she was a pirate and the boys were thrilled. They soon impersonated her. But when the boys pretended to go for an attack with the wooden sticks, Kagami quickly produced two more wooden sticks for Hannah and herself. Anarka screamed with delight to their enactment of the fighting scenes she just described. The boys attacked without a care in the world, about safety or anything else. But Kagami defended easily without hurting anyone, Hannah almost did not have to make a single move.

Marinette finally zoned out. The inspiration was there. She had the main pattern that should work for everyone, the only thing left was to adapt it to each of the band members. She dealt with Rose and Ivan easily. Juleka already had hair over her face and Marinette had a few ideas for her mask and turned her shirt into a short dress. Finally she could not avoid looking at the two boys. First she did the design for Luka, it was easier, he made her feel safe and relaxed. But one look at Adrien and his wink (again, it must be like seventh time that afternoon, not that she counted) was all it took for her to blush, stare at her drawing book and hide her face. She held her pen, but there was no drawing, no design, nothing was coming out from her.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid heart.” Marinette muttered as she tried to calm down. A few deep breaths and her hand was drawing the outline of Adrien’s face on its own, directly from her memory. She did not notice when Kagami sat by her side. Marinette’s hand moved and she was drawing Adrien, not the mask and not the design, just his face. She chided her stupid heart and wished she could just put her feelings on hold.

Kagami leaned over, her chin hovered above Marinette’s shoulder. The fencer admired how the drawing of the face was taking shape of Adrien. Marinette tuned out her surroundings entirely. It was the only way she could work. She was going to draw his face and only then she was going to adjust the mask. Kagami let her chin rest on Marinette’s shoulder while she watched the art come to life. But the artist continued her work.

Adrien felt giddy and relaxed ever since he explained how he felt about shooting the adds. Kagami produced no visible reaction, but Marinette blushed and struggled to explain why she omitted that particular detail. In a moment of bravery he finally admitted how he felt about it. And now he set himself free, he bantered with Luka, he let his fingers dance over the keyboard and find an inspiration on his own. He set his guard down and exposed his playful manners, since they were playing music, he let his face do the talking, he winked, waggled his eyebrows, smirked and grinned freely. Luka encouraged him with his own guitar riffs.

They took turns and challenges in inventing a new variation to the same melody on the keyboard and the guitar. The rest of the band was gone for the refreshments. Luka was just next to Adrien who was behind the keyboards. They would play, exchange a few nods and words and then play again differently. Luka leaned over to Adrien.

“I told Juleka about our visit to Hannah. I’m sure she passed the information to Rose.” Luka whispered and waited for Adrien to confirm that he understood. “There are some rumours passed around school about her.”

“What rumours?” Adrien flipped his head towards Luka. Was the secret that Hannah wanted to keep already out?

“It is about her jumping boys and showing off in the gym and undressing in science?” Luka inquired.

“We played handball and gymnastics, Chloe poured some chemical over her clothes.” Adrien explained briefly, but he was relieved to hear it was just some petty gossip.

“That is probably related to the story that she extorted gifts from Chloe, and Marinette, and you?” Luka inquired.

“Yeah, it is. Her clothes got ruined. Marinette got her something really beautiful, I just brought some old stuff for her brothers, it was too small for me anyway. Where do these stories come from?” Adrien inquired, it was bad if most of his classmates thought like that.

“Juleka heard it from Lila, Rose too I think.” Luka whispered.

“That lying ...” Adrien bit his tongue more as a habit of staying presentable model boy for his father’s brand than any other reason.

“Juleka looks up to Lila ever since you had that photo shoot with her. You know how she wants to be a model.” Luka explained.

“Lila is a nightmare. My father invited her to the photo shoot. I only did that photo shoot because I made a deal with that liar to invent another lie and bring Marinette back to school after she got her expelled. And my father made that liar his muse.” Adrien shook his head.

Luka needed a few moments. He stared at the blonde model boy in awe.

“You did that for Marinette?” Luka inquired.

“Yes. Only for her. Lila proximity makes me sick.” Adrien confirmed.

Luka took another moment to process the information he just got. The sheer act of self-sacrifice that Adrien did for Marinette overwhelmed him. He looked at the other boy gently. When Bob Roth and XY have stolen their music and Marinette’s design, he got akumatized, but Adrien actually found a way to help Marinette. He got her back to school. That was how she got back.

“You made a deal with the devil, then.” The older boy concluded.

“Yeah, and the devil is after Hannah now.” The model boy sighed.

Luka gave Adrien a tight side hug and squeezed his shoulder.

“You are really extraordinary boy Adrien. And I don’t mean it because of those posters and the way you look.” Luka spoke quietly and close to Adrien’s ear.

Adrien blushed at the praise he got. He usually heard how he looked extraordinarily.

“Thank you Luka, but the deal was worth it if it keeps my friends safe.”

“Your soul is clear and pure like a melody that leads you home. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Luka continued.

Adrien was red in the face but he did not forget to wink towards Marinette when he noticed she was looking at them.

“It is not that easy with Lila. She got Kagami akumatized, and Marinette when she got expelled.” Adrien warned.

“We have to protect them.” Luka concluded.

“You are so brave, determined and caring. You have better chance in protecting them than me.” Adrien looked to the side. He remembered when he returned the snake miraculous to Ladybug to give it to Luka.

It was Luka’s turn to blush.

“But you are there for them, I am sort of, their second chance?” Luka asked with a raised eyebrow. He was not sure if Adrien knew that Luka was Viperion, it was plausible, he never knew what exactly happened that day in the sewers.

Adrien chuckled but did not say anything, the memories of Desperada and his time as Aspik were too painful, he smiled gently at Luka, he saved the day (or a few months in Adrien’s time) when he became Viperion. The two boys remained close, they heard each other breathing and were not sure how to continue this conversation, it strayed in so many directions.

“I think Marinette totally zoned out.” Luka said looking away from the girl he just mentioned.

“Yeah, she did.” The blonde boy smiled at the scene before him.

“She is unaware of Kagami over there.” Luka whispered again.

Kagami raised her eyes to the two boys, smiled her small tight lipped smile and turned her eyes back down to look at the picture in the making.

Luka started to play a completely different melody than he used to.

“Hey, that’s totally different.” Adrien noted. “But it is nice.” He glanced towards Luka and then back to the girls before he picked up the melody and played it on the piano.

“What is this?” The blonde boy asked after they played the same theme of the melody over and over only slightly differently.

“It is the melody I sense from them.” Luka shrugged.

“You mean you just made it now on the go?” Adrien looked with his eyes wide.

“You picked it up very nicely.” Luka winked. “You feel them too, don’t you?”

Adrien blushed. He was not sure what he felt. But the melody the boys played was gentle and romantic, he could tell that much.

“Come on, let’s try again.” Luka nudged him and started to play. Adrien joined in and looked at the girls again.

Marinette felt her left shoulder went heavy and a little stiff, she tried to move it a little bit and discovered there was some weight on top of it. She turned to see what it was only to find Kagami smiling at her.

“Eep.” Marinette squealed and blushed. “How long have you been here?”

“From before you did his nose.” Kagami smiled. “I like watching you draw.”

Marinette settled back and looked back at the drawing.

“I should be designing, not drawing.” Marinette felt guilty because she was drawing Adrien (and had some thoughts while she was drawing his lips and his face and his eyes and …) and Kagami was right there, his girlfriend, she felt what she was doing was wrong.

“It is still nice.” Kagami smiled.

Marinette frowned at her sketchbook.

“no frowning.” Kagami teased. “Anarka said no negative feelings on her boat.”

Marinette sighed, with the history of how many times someone got akumatized while they were all on this boat, there was no wonder Anarka made that rule. But she sighed and looked at her sketchbook sadly.

“Come on, Anarka said no work, just fun!” Kagami poked Marinette in the ribs.

“That tickles me.” Marinette whined and giggled.

“Ticklish?” Kagami wiggled her fingers wickedly and then threw herself at Marinette. They giggled and tickled each other, the sketchbook and pencils left on the floor (deck).

The girls rolled over and tickled each other for a while. Giggling and out of breath, Kagami pulled away just a little bit. Marinette was catching breath, her face flushed.

“Would you draw me?” Kagami asked.

“Why not, it is not as if I am going to design anything more today, isn’t it?” Marinette replied and crawled back to her sketchbook. “So please sit, here.” Marinette pointed to the spot before her and Kagami obliged.

Marinette turned her sketchbook to a blank page and began to draw. She was drawing in silence until a black haired girl peeked to the drawing and placed her head between Marinette’s face and her sketchbook.

“Hey, no peeking. Sit there and wait for me to draw you.” Marinette ordered.

“Why? You could draw Adrien straight from your head, you did not even need to look at him, I watched you.” Kagami teased.

“I can always draw him out of my head.” Marinette muttered before she realized she said it out loud.

“You still have feelings for him, don’t you?” Kagami asked.

Marinette made a small nod.

“Huh, I just thought, back when we took that ice cream at Andre’s, I thought you let him go.” Kagami spoke quietly.

“I thought I have, I wanted to.” Marinette whispered.

“And I thought you chose Luka.” Kagami continued.

“Luka was nice to me when I felt weak. But ...” Marinette remembered that day when she broke down in tears and Luka was picking up her pieces.

“You like him but?” Kagami inquired.

“But Luka is so nice, why can’t I?” Marinette stared at her friend.

“Adrien is nice too.” Kagami sighed. The boy also tends to hesitate a lot for Kagami’s taste, but she was not going to complain about that.

“And gentle and caring and … You have seen what he did for Hannah.” Marinette continued. He was also brave, he helped Ladybug even as a civilian.

“Luka is also gentle and caring.” Kagami added with a smile.

“Yes he is.” Marinette laughed briefly. “They both are.”

“But he is not Adrien?” Kagami raised her eyebrows at her friend.

Marinette shook her head.

“You don’t just like Adrien, you love him, don’t you?” Kagami felt her eyes hurt, she was happy with Adrien, but she hurt her friend in the process. And the boy started to be awkward with her.

“I did not like him in the beginning you know.” Marinette whispered, and then she told the story about the gum and the umbrella and the lightning and everything. Kagami sat peacefully and kept the same expression on her face, her friend was really in love with her crush, the crush she was dating, at least trying to date, she was not sure what they were doing anyway.

“Well, you know how Adrien and me started off.” Kagami reminded Marinette.

“I’m so sorry about that day.” Marinette apologized, due to her error (and bias) she assigned to point to Adrien and Kagami got akumatized.

“Don’t be.” Kagami shook her head. “It was an honest mistake.”

“It wasn’t. I was biased. I’m sorry.” Marinette admitted.

“I thought you did not like me. I know Chloe doesn’t.” Kagami did not want to admit that the feeling might have been mutual.

“I … “ Marinette looked at Adrien. “might have been one tiny bit jealous? And Chloe doesn’t like anybody.”

“I am glad we got paired up for that game.” Kagami smiled.

“Me too.” Marinette smiled back, she remembered her fears, how if the two of them won the game, Kagami would win Adrien, so Marinette tried to sabotage the two of them and other girls won the game. But it did not help, Kagami got Adrien in the end. It was for the best, Marinette could not have a boyfriend, not really, she was Ladybug and a Guardian and all that secret life was just in the way. If only her heart would just stop beating so hard, if only those butterflies in her belly would calm down.

“Do you feel a melody for everyone?” Adrien inquired out of curiosity.

“Some people, well most people, but I would prefer not to hear it for some.” Luka replied as he strummed his guitar. The boy just laughed at the girls tickling each other and resumed their conversation from before.

“Do you … “ Adrien was reluctant to ask. “Do you feel mine?”

Luka was quiet for a while and then he began to strum a guitar again.

“Your melody has many themes, soft and gentle.” He strummed a few chords. “But also funny and teasing.” Then he played a happy tune. “But there is also a lingering tone of sadness and spleen.” Luka played a few notes before he stopped and looked at Adrien. The blonde boy gaped with his mouth open.

“That is amazing, how do you do it?” Adrien whispered in awe as Luka strummed the guitar with the same melody but played differently so it reflected the mood.

Luka shrugged and continued to play. After a while, Adrien started to follow the melody on the keyboard.

“Do you have your own melody?” Adrien asked after they both stopped.

Luka looked away.

Adrien felt like he maybe pushed just a little bit too much.

“Sorry.” He whispered.

“No, it is okay, you have every right to ask, but I don’t know, someone else should find it for me I guess.” The boy hugged his guitar and looked at Adrien.

“Can I try?” Adrien’s eyes were wide.

Luka shrugged.

Adrien started to press the keys on the keyboard, a melody was formed after a while, a bit broken and awkward at times.

“Hey, that is the tune you played when I played my melody for you.” Luka noticed.

Adrien stopped to play.

“I don’t have a clue what am I doing, right?” The blonde boy laughed.

“Neither do I most of the time.” Luka admitted.

They both looked at the girls.

“They are having some serious conversation there.” Adrien noticed.

“Anarka said no negative emotions on board.” Luka frowned.

“Well, if Anarka said so … “ Adrien smiled crookedly and wiggled his fingers. Luka nodded. They both sneaked up to the girls. Adrien moved much like a cat, while Luka chose to hide behind a speaker and then jump.

Both boys jumped towards the girls and started tickling.

Four teenagers formed a pile of squirming, tickling, giggling and screaming mess, everybody was tickling anybody else they could reach. Adrien stole one band from Marinette’s pigtails and Kagami stole the other.

Someone coughed above them.

They stilled entirely, the only noise was their heavy breathing.

“Pizza is here.” Juleka muttered with a smirk and turned to walk away.

The four of them got up with a few laughs and more teasing before Marinette noticed her hair was not in her usual pigtails.

“You go, I’ll search for my hair bands.” Marinette turned back and searched the floor.

Luka made a step to help her, but Adrien grabbed one of his hands and Kagami took the other. They both showed the rubber bands they snatched. Luka laughed.

“Look guys, pizza is getting cold.” Luka spoke after a minute of all three of them snickering. “Marinette, your hair bands are here.”

The girl turned around.

“Oh you found them.” She noticed.

“You could say so.” Kagami smirked.

“I guess we knew where to look for them?” Adrien teased.

Marinette blushed, but held out her hands to get her hair bands back.

“No, you are staying like this, we prefer it this way.” Luka insisted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many flashbacks in this one ... and they talk about almost everything but the double date.  
> The next chapter is also on Liberty.


	21. Pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the fluffy hang out continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not a washing detergent commercial.

Pizza

Hannah was sitting on a box on the deck while Mylenne was braiding her hair. Hannah’s brothers were playing with makeshift wooden swords. Ivan set up the pizza boxes and already started to eat. Juleka walked over to Rose and whispered something. The two girls giggled and whispered further.

“Come on, it is getting cold.” Anarka encouraged everyone to join in as she herself took one triangle and started eating.

“I’m not done with Hannah just yet.” Mylenne sighed.

“That is all right.” Ivan offered to feed his girlfriend with pizza.

“No, there will be pizza all over her hair. I will be finished soon enough. Just save me a piece, please.” Mylenne brushed him off gently.

“Can I help?” Kagami asked tentatively, Mylenne confirmed and moved to the side.

“More hands will make it faster.” Luka added and reached between the two girls with his long hands.

The three of them progressed very quickly.

“You are really skilled with these.” Kagami admired Luka’s hand work.

“I had practice on Juleka.” The boy smirked. “Here, let me help you.” Luka put his hands over Kagami’s and helped her fold the hair more neatly.

Robbie and Eddie took a slice of pizza each folded it and started to eat, but soon they were nudging and teasing each other, they were back on their feet with they wooden swords in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other dancing around each other in no time.

Adrien went straight for the pizza. Marinette joined him reluctantly as he offered her to sit beside him. Hannah stuttered answers about her family and her parents to the questions asked by Rose and Juleka. Rose kept her notebook where she was writing her ideas for song lyrics and was making notes from time to time. Suddenly both Adrien and Marinette stiffened and connected the dots.

“Is Rose making notes about Hannah?” Marinette whispered.

“It certainly looks like it.” Adrien replied quietly.

“Rose! What are you doing?” Marinette whisper-shouted.

Rose was not responding.

“She got an idea for a song.” Juleka muttered, she and Rose exchanged a gentle glance before Rose started scribbling again. “You can see it later.” Juleka continued.

“Finally, the last one is finished.” Mylenne announced and arranged the braids on Hannah’s head. The girl was excited about her hairdo, while the other three teens admired their work.

“Come on over, while there is still some food left.” Anarka called.

Mylenne walked over and sat on Ivan’s knee. Luka and Kagami took the seats previously taken by Eddie and Robbie (who were having another fencing duel in the background) while Hannah pulled the box she was sitting on closer to the rest of the group.

They were eating their pizza. Luka held his piece and changed the positions of his fingers as if he was pressing strings on a guitar and changing chords while he hummed some melody. Kagami leaned in and watched his fingers curious what the boy was doing. Then Luka moved suddenly and the slice of pizza got stuck on Kagami’s nose. Luka turned around, saw what he did as Kagami removed the slice of pizza from her face but there was one piece of cheese left. Luka wiped it off and ate it without thinking. But then he realized what he did and blushed. He decided to take a bite of his pizza and hide his face behind. But Kagami smirked and nudged his hand towards his face. He glared at her, she laughed at him and wiped off a piece and ate it too.

Hannah ate silently and watched her two brothers often.

“Don’t worry about them so much, you are not their mother.” Anarka warned.

Hannah looked back at her food and avoided Anarka’s eyes.

“I am their big sister.” The girl replied in a barely audible tone, but everyone was silent and eating.

“Help me out over here.” Anarka spoke to everyone around. “Hannah here has been caring about her brothers and her home for years now.”

Hannah wanted to protest.

“Your brothers told me.” Anarka started in a no nonsense tone. “You clean up your home, wash and iron the clothes, you cook the food regularly.”

“I don’t cook that much, my parents cook when they are home.” The girl argued bravely.

“Nobody stands up to Anarka in that mood.” Luka whispered to Kagami.

“Which is not that often and then they sleep for their next shift. And it is you who checks their homework?” Anarka was incredulous.

“My parents have hard jobs.” Hannah defended. “And study during the week.” And it was much better for her if she checks the homework of her brothers, that way she caught many new words and expressions used in school.

“Anyway, I think you need some time off, so you are welcome here on Liberty whenever you want. You have so many duties you forgot how to be a child. And you can bring these two pests of yours with you if you must. I’ll make them some fine sea men one day.” Anarka spoke in that pirate sort of way and the two boys laughed at her antics and dared her to fight them. Hannah took her slice of pizza and walked away from the group to calm down after the confrontation. She liked Anarka and the way the woman played with her brothers.

“Hannah really has a lot on her plate.” Marinette sighed. But Anarka’s speech reminded her of her own duties and responsibilities, did she forget to be a child, well a teenager, too?

Adrien nodded, the argument Hannah had with her parents that he witnessed as Chat Noir still played in his head. He knew he had many activities and obligations, even without being Chat Noir, but the biggest problem he had was that he was somehow not allowed to be playful, at least not in public, god forsake in front of his father, so he enjoyed being Chat Noir just because he was able to be playful, to be himself, to be a kid, although that was a bit impractical in the middle of an akuma battle.

“She is more stubborn than Marinette.” Luka concluded as he watched Hannah move to the side of the boat and watch the Seine.

“Definitely.” Kagami agreed and the two of them exchanged a smile.

Marinette groaned. Since when was she a measure for stubbornness?

“She _is_ more stubborn than you, you can change your mind.” Kagami smirked and flicked her eyes towards Adrien for a split second.

Marinette blushed, she changed her mind about Kagami, but she also changed her mind about Adrien. What was she insinuating? Whatever it was, this conversation had to stop.

“What is it that you changed your mind about Marinette?” Adrien turned more towards her.

“Um, it is silly really.” She flailed her hands, hit Adrien in the elbow while he was taking a bite of his pizza. That consequently caused him to splay pieces of pizza over his face and nose.

“Sorry, sorry, I am so sorry.” Marinette was wiping pieces of pizza off from Adrien’s face. The boy looked at her gently. Marinette wiped off the pizza and looked at her fingers. He smirked.

“Eat it” All the present teenagers cheered. Rose cooed, Juleka could not believe her eyes, Mylenne crossed her fingers, Ivan was slightly confused, Luka and Kagami were the loudest.

Adrien looked at her expectantly. Marinette forgot to breathe.

Marinette took a deep breath and did it, she licked her fingers. Then she crumpled, took her pizza and nibbled on it just to hide her face and her blush.

Adrien smirked. He did not even try to pretend it was an accident. He rather intentionally flicked her arm so that pizza ends up on Marinette’s face. The girl squealed in a way that made the boy chuckle. A pair of blue eyes glared at him over the food. She could not hide behind her bangs after she removed the pizza because the food would get stuck on them.

Adrien wiped off the leftover food off her face and licked his finger while looking at her the whole time. It was funny how red she got. And the way her eyes got wide was just hilarious. The boy had just too much fun.

“Wait wait there is more left over here.” Adrien wiped the last traces of food with his fingers.

Those fingers that were in his mouth just a moment before, the fingers he just licked. Marinette was trying to remember how to breathe while her blood was all rushing from her brain and straight into her face.

Kagami observed the scene with a strange feeling in her gut. It was only part jealousy. Suddenly she realized why Marinette hesitated so much. The girl barely functioned while in the vicinity of Adrien Agreste. Yes, Kagami liked the boy, she liked him a lot, maybe she even loved him, she would kill or die for him (especially while akumatized), but that was the way she was brought up, her warrior side prevailed, she even waited for him to change his targets, well she was still waiting. But she never ever lost the ability to function properly in front of the boy, in front of anyone for that matter, so she wondered if she ever felt so much for Adrien as Marinette did.

Luka sighed, he knew that Adrien did not have a clue what he was doing, the older boy understood how much his friend was oblivious. But the scene before him was clear as a day, Marinette did not get over Adrien, she did not let go, she could not switch off her feelings just like that. Yes she liked him, Luka, too, but obviously not like that. He turned towards the girl beside him, Kagami had a frown on her face, from worry or jealousy, he could not tell for sure. Perhaps both, perhaps neither, that girl was still a mystery to him. Luka wrapped his arm around Kagami’s shoulders to make feel better for whatever was bothering her at that moment. Kagami looked at him with a faint smile.

“Yo and behold!” Someone shouted from the river bank.

“Papa!” The boys shouted back.

“Have these pirates taken my children?” The man exclaimed.

“Yes we have and you will have to fight me to get them back.” Anarka retorted playfully.

“Then fight I will.” He stepped over on the board that lead from the embankment to the boat.

“Have your weapon.” Anarka threw one wooden sword towards him. The man caught it and observed awkwardly.

“To be honest, I have no idea how to use this.” Hannah’s father smiled while everyone laughed.

“Welcome to Liberty, I am Anarka, Juleka and Luka are my kids.” The proud captain of the Liberty introduced herself.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Ivan.” They shook hands. “I’m here to pick up my three monsters, their mother is going for a twenty four hour shift this evening and would like to see them before she goes.”

“Papa” The three kids whined in protest.

“My twenty four hour shift starts in the morning, so you have the whole day tomorrow for your homework .. “ The kids groaned to these words and Anarka whistled “ .. household chores ...” The boys nudged Hannah who groaned. “And spend time with your friends.” That earned cheers from everyone.

Marinette was glad for the distraction as she managed to calm down and give proper greetings to Hannah and her family while they left the boat. She sat back to her place and tried to recover from the emotional roller coaster she was on and come to terms with whatever she felt right then. Adrien sat back on his spot beside her and took one more slice of pizza. Luka bent over both of them to grab the last piece in the box.

“There is one more box, no need to worry.” The boy assured his friends as he grabbed the empty box to remove it. But the source of the sound so close to their heads made both Adrien and Marinette shiver pleasantly and shift suddenly, Marinette flailed her hands (again) to catch her balance and pizza was somehow stuck on Adrien’s face, again. Luka was already gone with the empty box and his slice while Adrien and Marinette observed each other. She sighed and wiped the food off his face without giving it further thought, the mess was there and she was going to clean it.

“Sorry.” She muttered again. She did not even try to voice her apology nor how she got startled. She cleaned her fingers without even thinking that she was licking her fingers in front of Adrien Agreste, again, because her mind was somewhere else at that moment.

“I got startled too.” Adrien winked. Marinette was removing the last piece of cheese under his left eye when suddenly and inspiration started to strike. She traced her fingers around his eyes.

Adrien froze, was she tracing the shape of his Chat Noir mask? Did she get his identity? She looked at his face and furrowed her brows as she concentrated on the picture in her head. Adrien was terrified what that picture was. The moment she touched his hair, he was certain that his secret identity was busted, those locks she touched were the locks around his cat ears.

“Face paint and green tips.” She exclaimed and ran away to fetch her sketchbook.

Adrien was there, dazed and confused, with his mouth slightly opened. He turned his head only to find Luka and Kagami giggled and whispered something to each other and then giggled again. They both looked towards him from time to time, but that only inspired more giggles from the duo.

Marinette was back with her sketchbook, making notes and drawing a mask over the drawing of Adrien’s face she did before. She coloured the tips of his hair green and large portions of his face were painted in green and blue.

Adrien held her hair to be able to see what she was drawing, Kagami soon joined them on the other side.

“I told you pigtails are more practical.” Marinette grunted without looking away from her sketchbook.

That made both teenagers collect her hair and make two pigtails, but her hair was not parted evenly, nor in a straight line and both tails were seated too high. Both Kagami and Adrien looked at each other, concluded they were not happy with what they did and started over.

Juleka laid her head in Rose’s lap and the two girls observed them with amusement. Ivan was obviously asleep in his chair while Mylenne laid her head on his chest, closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

The duo tied two pigtails in their second attempt, Luka observed what they did over their shoulders and shook his head. But he took a photo of what they did. Then he sat down and took his guitar and started to play a melody.

After that Adrien and Kagami invented different ways to tie the two tails on Marinette’s head, one above another, tilted to the side, tilted to different sides, and each time Kagami took a photo of what they did.

They had to stop when Kagami’s car arrived to pick her up. She said her goodbyes and went towards the car. Adrien finally managed to make two pigtails, approximately equally parted with satisfactory straight line to pronounce himself finished. Luka walked over while he kept playing the melody, he smiled at the blonde boy and nodded his approval.

Then both boys looked at the design of the mask, each over one of Marinette’s shoulders. She felt both boys hovered above her and stopped drawing completely.

“This is amazing, Marinette.” Adrien praised. “Can I take a photo of this?”

“Um it is not finished yet.” She protested.

“Come on, I want to have it. It’s just for me. I’m not going to steal your design.” He teased. “I’m not going to show it to any one, not even my father.”

Marinette sighed and let him take the photo.

Adrien was taking the photo when a message popped up on his phone.

“The message says that the car will pick me up in two minutes.” The boy continued. She looked at the time and at the sky, the sun was about to set soon. It was time for all of them to head home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah 'It's complicated' :)


	22. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And an akuma fight.  
> Ladybug spills her guts to Chat.  
> Chat seeks company after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And all romantic souls go crazy.

Friends

“You are becoming a real Casanova there kid.” Plagg teased the moment the boy entered the car.

Adrien rolled his eyes at his kwami. Was it wrong what he just did with his _friends_? Because they were his friends, Kagami, Marinette, Luka, they were all his _friends_.

“At least one of my previous wielders would envy you! You got to flirt with all three of them and each of them flirted with you and nobody even got jealous!” Plagg continued and Adrien regretted not having more cheese in his duffel bag to silence the tiny glutton. Not that it would have lasted long even if he brought much more.

“I did not flirt with them and they did not flirt with me, Plagg.” Adrien replied and turned to look through the window.

“Nope, you just wanted to feed Pigtails some cheese. I told you you should give your girlfriends some Camembert and everything would work out.” Plagg continued.

“Yeah, the smell would make them go away.” Adrien retorted.

Adrien got scolded by Nathalie because he was given free afternoon but his father somehow hoped the boy would be back sooner? He was expected in his father’s office. Gabriel informed his son about the photo shoot the next day, outside, collection for the next spring, then he was informed about the way he was expected to look and behave and … Adrien spaced out. If anything that happened on the boat that afternoon ever reached his father, he would be grounded for life.

Adrien was dismissed to enjoy lonely dinner and go to his huge empty room to practice the piano and Chinese and write his homework or whatever as long as he stayed in his room and did not disturb or embarrass his father. He remembered Hannah’s parents, they were rather demanding on their daughter and honestly unfair, but at least her father was warm and fun to be with.

So he called Nino.

“Hey there, how was the life of the pirates of the Seine?” Nino greeted.

“It was great.” Adrien beamed at the memories. “But I’ll pay for it with a whole day photo shoot tomorrow.”

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there dude. I had Chris and relatives on my back the whole afternoon.” Nino continued. “My aunt and uncle and their kids. I made a deal with Alya to at least suffer together with Chris and Ella and Etta on the playground, but then my uncle and aunt discovered that I have a girlfriend and then never stopped teasing.”

Adrien chuckled. “Well, that is the price to pay for having Alya.” The blonde boy teased his friend.

“They teased her too.” Nino whined. “By telling her all the worst stories of the things I did as a kid, exaggerated stories! And I was like two when I did some of that stuff, I do not even remember!”

Adrien wished he had someone to be teased about. Adrien wished he had someone to tease him. He looked at Plagg. Plagg looked back, his neon green eyes looked rather sad.

“Well we jammed some and had pizza.” Adrien shrugged. “You didn’t miss much.”

“The girls sent a few messages to Alya, they were rather excited about something.” Nino spoke in a typical Alya, the research journalist tone. “And Alya wouldn’t tell me what it was.” The boy frowned. “She told me to ask you what was going on.”

“I, um, what in particular?” Adrien’s voice went slightly higher than he intended.

“Told you, Alya did not tell me.” Nino warned.

“Okay, so Luka and me were working on some melodies, Mylenne braided Hannah’s hair, her brothers were fencing, Anarka … “ The boy continued to list.

“Listen, sorry, but I have to go to be humiliated by my family again, sorry bro, call me or write to me tomorrow when you catch a break.” Nino cut the call.

Adrien smiled and pulled out his homework. He might as well catch up on that since there was no way for him to work on that on Sunday.

Marinette was surprised to find her parents still working in the bakery.

“We got a big last minute order, dear, and we can’t risk denying it to Hotel Le Grand Paris.” Tom sighed. “We will be catering tomorrow. But you’ll be free this time.”

“But we could use your help in packing all this.” Sabine added. “Please?”

“Of course maman.” Marinette was already washing her hands.

Boxes of macarons and other cookies were packed, the dinner was eaten and her parents were making a plan for the next day while she retreated with homework on her mind.

“Why do I have so much homework?” Marinette whined to Tikki once she arranged everything on her desk.

“Because you had a wonderful time today?” Tikki piped in.

“Yes, I have.” Marinette sighed. “My love life is so complicated.”

“Really?” Tikki floated straight in front of Marinette’s face and observed her curiously.

“Oh, stop teasing me, I thought I was over Adrien.” The girl turned away. “Hannah is right, I do not have the time for that, homework!”

“She calls herself Complicated.” Chat informed Ladybug when she landed on the rooftop near him. The Eiffel tower glowed in the distance and Parisian lights were making the city bright even in the middle of the night. He admired her shiny smile and her blue eyes and was taken by her beauty as ever, but he schooled his behaviour.

“What is her power?” Ladybug peeked over the edge of the building. The akuma was a woman in a gorgeous evening gown and a cowboy hat with a magic wand in one hand and a whip in another. At that moment she stomped her foot that was dressed in a cowboy boot on the pavement and the surface started to freeze, then she whipped a few pedestrians nearby and they became her minions dressed in ridiculous clothing combinations.

“That is the thing, she has many powers.” Chat explained. “I have seen her turn trees into life with that wand, she froze that car over there and the pavement now and she can produce minions who are looking for us.”

“Could that necklace she is wearing be the akumatized object?” Ladybug wondered aloud.

“That or any of her weapons.” Chat continued.

“I am Complicated, don’t try to simplify everything I do, don’t try to put it in any of your boxes and then scold me because I do not fit in.” The akuma yelled. “I can love who ever I want and it does not mean I can’t love someone else. I do not have to make up my mind!”

“But what about the people you are in love with? How do they feel about that?” Chat jumped out from the hiding to draw the attention of the akuma away from more civilians.

“Chat Noir, the incessant flirt! You of all people should now! They can accept me or not, but they can’t condition they would love me only if I give up on everyone else in my life.” The akuma replied as she waved her wand and produced a lightning bolt that nearly missed Chat.

“I have only one girl in my life.” Chat shot back. But it was a lie. He knew he loved Ladybug, but she was definitely not the only girl in his life. He needed to move on and boy, was he not sure how to do that. His heart had a few flip ups that day.

Ladybug blushed at that statement. But then she tried to focus on the akuma. It did not help, stupid stupid heart, she saw Chat’s happy smile, adoring glance towards her and impressive coordination as he evaded each of the blows that Complicated threw on him. She wrapped her yoyo around him and pulled him out of the danger. Her heart would not take it if he got hurt or if she had to fight him this night.

“So how about your love life, Bug?” Chat teased.

“It’s complicated.” She retorted coolly.

“Ooh? Anything you want to share?” He inquired while his mask showed he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Chat, you understand we can’t be together because we are superheroes, right?” She whispered.

“Yes, I do, I am trying to move on, but that does not mean I stopped loving you.” He said it so easily that Ladybug felt even worse about herself.

“Well, I tried moving on from a boy and I thought it was working.” Ladybug sighed.

“Moving on? He doesn’t like you?” Chat froze in his place.

“Not like that. He loves someone else, I know it is not me, I used to think I knew who it was, I even helped them get together.” Ladybug spoke quickly and quietly. “More than once.”

Chat’s heart was breaking, if he was trying to set up Ladybug with someone else, he would have gone mad.

“You … were trying to set up … the boy you like … with someone else?” Chat stammered out.

“Yes, he told me he loved someone else and there is this girl that likes him too and I thought he liked her back, but after today I am not even sure if it is her.” Ladybug lowered her head. “I just want him to be happy. I even tried to move on, but it doesn’t work. Nothing works.”

Chat wanted to whisper that maybe just maybe that was because the said guy actually liked her, but that would be as if he stabbed himself in the back and he just could not do it.

“The boys just make me confused. I will just put my love life on hold. This is all too much, the superheroing, the guardianship, … “ She trailed off, there was school and there were all the shenanigans with Lila and Chloe and Hannah. “And my civilian life and I can’t really squeeze in my love life in there, so I have decided, no romance, just friends!”

“Friends are the best.” Chat smiled fondly, Ladybug was his friend, Kagami, Marinette and Luka were his friends, Nino was his friend, he liked his friends, he loved them, a lot, each of them slightly differently, because people are differnt (not like that brain, nope, not like that!).

“Friends help each other, you know?” Chat smiled as he reminded Ladybug of his offer.

“I am still looking into that.” She sighed, it was that shared guardianship again.

The lucky charm was a fishing rod with a slimy monster as a bait.

One precise throw of the bait (okay, it was more than twenty attempts, but one successful) that attached to the necklace and one very precise cataclysm later, the pendant on the necklace was destroyed and the butterfly was cleansed.

The akumatized victim decided her problems were not something she wanted to discuss with them and left on her own.

Ladybug and Chat Noir bumped their fists and went their separate ways.

Ladybug stopped by opposite Hannah’s window, the light was on so she swung closer to see what was going on this late in the evening. Hannah was ironing and folding clothes while she was listening to one of the French exercises on her computer and repeated sentence after sentence. She arranged the clothes neatly on the bed of her parents, one side was currently empty while her father snored on the side closer to the window.

Ladybug barely made it to her rooftop terrace before she detransformed.

“Sorry Tikki, I was distracted. Hannah has so much to do.” Marinette gave a cookie to her kwami and let her land on her bed.

“Did you really think what you told Chat Noir, Marinette?” Tikki inquired while she nibbled on the cookie.

“Yes I have.” Marinette replied resolutely. “Friendship is easy, I can do friendship.”

Marinette looked at the photos that were attached to the wall above her bed.

“It is not going to be easy.” Tikki warned.

“I can’t control my feelings, but I can control if I act on them.” The girl replied tiredly. She was asleep before Tikki finished her cookie.

Chat Noir hid on a rooftop, detransformed and fed his kwami.

“I want to take my time to go back to my room. I will be on that photo shoot the whole day tomorrow.” Adrien tossed a piece of cheese to Plagg.

“Yeah, take your time alright, just don’t bother me with that mushy stuff.” The tiny black cat took a bite off the cheese.

“You heard what Ladybug said? That she was not going into any romantic relationships any time soon?” Adrien asked with a wide happy face.

“Was that all she told you?” Plagg watched carefully as he was eating his cheese.

“She also told me we can’t be together. Is that true?” The boy looked back at his kwami.

“It is true if she says so.” Plagg looked away.

“Okay, but that means it is her decision, it is not like … forbidden or something?” Adrien was hopeful.

“Given the circumstances, there is not much choice for both of you currently.” Plagg replied flatly.

Adrien transformed and jumped over rooftops. He did not intend to find Luka strumming his guitar on the deck of Liberty. The melody was melancholic and Chat was drawn closer and closer until he simply hopped over on the deck and greeted.

“Chat Noir, is everything okay? Is there an akuma? Do you need me?” Luka asked worriedly as he got on his feet.

“Nah, Ladybug and I dealt with that.” Chat dismissed. Luka sat back down and looked at the superhero.

“How was your day? Is there something bothering you?” Chat asked calmly.

“My day was fantastic. I watched two friends on a fencing tournament and we all hang out here afterwards with my band.” Luka smiled.

“Oh, you were working on some sad melody? Because what you played just now was a bit sad.” Chat wanted to know what made Luka play that melody, perhaps it was something harmless.

“Oh, I’m not sad, just a little bit off. I have wonderful friends, I like them a lot, but I want to protect them and it is not so simple, I hurt when they hurt and I could not do anything about it. A friend of mine did something to protect another friend, he did something that was disgusting to him, but he did it for his friend. And I wish I was there to help, but I wasn’t. And we have this other friend, she would have fought a dragon to help her friends, but she was not able to help either. So we both felt kind of useless and hurt and sort of bonded over that.”

“That is good.” Chat shrugged. “I mean, that you bonded, not that you feel useless. You are not useless, you are their friend and sometimes that is the best you can do or be.”

“Yeah, she does not have many friends because she has this defensive attitude, but she is really nice.” Luka smiled.

They chatted a bit before Chat decided it was time to go back to the mansion, he had to start early the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was tempted to let Luka tell Chat how Marinette was in love with Adrien, but Luka would not tell that, right?  
> The girls are hanging out in the next chapter.  
> The approximate length of thirty chapters shall be exceeded ... but not by much.


	23. Girls hanging out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the title, Alya wants some answers and girls have fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny twist to the plot (that should add about three chapters)

Girl’s hang out

Marinette woke up to the influx of messages. Alya wanted a girl’s hang out and proposed the bakery for that. Of course, she agreed, whatever it was it seemed urgent. That however had to wait until later in the day, because Sabine and Tom needed help in the bakery.

“You can heat up the leftovers from the dinner last night for your lunch dear, I’m really sorry, but there is no time for me to cook right now.” Sabine apologized while she iced the cake.

“The order and your maman and me have to be there an hour earlier than planned.” Tom explained the emergency. “Please stay nearby, we might call you if we need something more, we have no time to pack the extras right now.”

“And please take this box to Hannah some time during the day.” Sabine added.

“Hannah’s parents also work today.” She smiled.

“Then invite them over.” Tom grinned.

When her parents were finished and the boxes neatly placed in the small delivery vehicle sent by the hotel, her parents were off and Marinette was free to catch up with her day. Which was to send a message to Hannah and throw herself back into the bed.

“You promised Alya to let her know when you are finished.” Tikki reminded the girl.

“Oh yes.” Marinette typed ‘finished’ into her phone and closed her eyes.

Hannah woke up to her father’s alarm clock. She heard him smash it, groan, and go to the bathroom. Then she heard the shower. She wanted to continue sleeping, but it was in vain. Homework, literature assignments, worksheets, she was going down the ladder. She put the water in a small pot to boil it for her father’s coffee and made herself fruit tea in the microwave. The coffee was brewed and she was writing her homework.

“Good morning Hannah.” Her father greeted and filled one cup and a ‘to go’ cup with the coffee.

“Morning papa.” She replied.

“Is there something you or your brothers do not intend to eat?” Her father asked and pointed towards the box from the Dupain Cheng bakery. Hannah pointed to two quiches.

“You can take anything you want, papa.” Hannah smiled.

“I don’t like sweet so much.” He replied.

“Except your coffee.” She teased.

“I have to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow after school.” The man hugged his daughter and left.

After several hours of work, Hannah filled in her history worksheet with considerable help form Adrien’s notebook. Her brothers woke up.

“Hannah, could you bring that box up here?” One of them asked.

“No food in bed.” She retorted as she was checking if she got everything okay.

“No parents at home.” The boy retorted.

“Come downstairs you lazy ticks.” She spoke quietly to her worksheet as she discovered one unanswered question. When did she skip that and how? Then she read it, it was a tricky question because she did not understand the phrase and the individual words meant nothing in this context.

The boys continued to whine but she never relented. Finally they got downstairs fully dressed.

“Fine, but we are going to the centre to play games.” Robbie crossed his arms.

“Fine.” Hannah took her cup and realized she drank all her tea. “We can go as soon as you eat.”

She went upstairs to change and took a piece of pastry ‘for the way’ because she never took the time to actually sit and eat if not made to do so. She checked her phone while they were going out from the building.

“Hey, we can go to Marinette to have lunch?” That was the only way for her to see her friends that day, her brothers had to agree and Marinette had to agree to have them over there.

Adrien was woken up by Plagg and his alarm clock. Yes, the photo shoot. A shower later, he got dressed and decided that was sufficient preparation, there were people paid to make him look presentable. He felt comfortably numb about the whole ordeal until he heard that the afternoon shoot was to be done with Lila. Well, with ‘his fathers muse’ to be more precise. And he had to overhear that, nobody bothered to tell him.

“Plagg, I really do not want another photo shoot with her.” Adrien sighed.

“I could cataclysm something and the photo shoot would be postponed?” Plagg offered. “Or somebody?”

“Perhaps I could condition my cooperation with that she leaves Hannah alone this time?” The boy pondered how to make the best out from this situation.

“Or cataclysm?” The tiny god of destruction thought about the lesser evil.

Adrien was in the park in the early morning light. The grass and the leaves glowed in the morning dew. The birds were singing (that could not be heard on the photos but it made his day nicer) and the flowers were … well … flowery. He saw Hannah passed with her brothers on her way and waved her, she waved him back and then her brothers insisted to come along and watch. Needless to say, they were bored after a few minutes and walked away. So much for his fame.

He saw the delivery vehicle in front of the bakery and he might have caught a glimpse of Marinette in her pyjamas. Vincent warned him to look at the camera.

Marinette woke up to the phone vibrating in her hand. One box of macarons got destroyed by the hotel staff. (Marinette wondered when Chloe qualified for the hotel staff). She dragged herself out from the bed and into the bakery and packed what was required of her.

Of course, it was Luka who was there to pick up the box and deliver it to the hotel.

And she was still wearing her pyjama.

Luka blushed and complimented her, she meeked and wrapped her arms around her body protectively. He chuckled. Alya just approached from the side and stood there with her arms crossed.

“You are here, with a boy, in the morning, in your pyjama and your parents are not home?” Alya inquired.

“Luka was just picking up a delivery.” Marinette protested with her face flushed.

“I’m sorry but your parents need this.” Luka apologized for leaving Marinette in this awkward situation.

“If this is girl’s hang out, I would like to invite Kagami.” Marinette took her phone and was ready to type a message.

“You would invite Kagami but you never invite Lila.” Alya crossed her arms again.

“You know how I feel about Lila.” Marinette replied.

The staring contest was disrupted by Alix and Mylenne who just walked into the bakery.

“Why don’t you go upstairs, I will just take some snacks here.” Marinette offered.

The girls decided to wait and chat. Rose and Juleka arrived before they went upstairs.

“What is the emergency?” Marinette asked quietly, because if Alya called the meeting, then there was one.

“I want to know what exactly happened on that boat yesterday.” Alya demanded.

“Marinette and Kagami were so cute.” Rose cooed. Marinette blushed.

“Luka and Adrien are practically soulmates.” Juleka muttered.

“I braided Hannah’s hair.” Mylenne added. “And Anarka was great with her brothers.”

“Looks like you had fun, I had to replace one wheel on my rollers after the stunt I tried at Trocadero.” Alix grinned.

“Stop stop. Back to Adrien and Luka and soulmates?” Alya looked at Juleka.

“Well, they were making music of their hearts or something.” Juleka muttered back.

“I just made a drawing of Kagami.” Marinette responded quickly when Alya turned to her.

‘Please do not mention pizza’ Marinette chanted within herself. But Rose was too excited not to tell all about it. Alix snickered to the story, but Alya was fuming.

“Girl, who is dating who and why I don’t know about it? I demand to know everything about you. You owe me that much after everything you put me through.” The journalist was standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips.

“We are just friends.” Marinette shrugged timidly. She knew they were not exactly just friends, there was something else than just friendship between them, but she wanted, no she needed time to get to terms what those feelings were, besides, she decided not to act upon them, so it did not make a difference.

There was some snickering and knowing glances from her friends, but nobody tried to fix it.

After Marinette sunk not only her favourite ship, but a whole navy, Alya decided to switch the subject.

“Have you seen the fight from last night on the Ladyblog?” Alya squealed.

Marinette was there, she did not remember anything worthy squealing about.

Apparently, Saturday evening was rather busy time in Paris and there was plenty of footage of the akuma and her diverse powers, from all angles and in all the different qualities.

“I have posted only basic article, but this akuma deserves to be covered so much better, what do you think, this one or this one?” Alya continued.

“Isn’t your boyfriend an aspiring film director?” Alix muttered what the rest of the girls thought.

“Yes, but he has some relatives over and I just wanted to share this with you.” Alya was excited about the amount of video material she got.

Kagami arrived and Marinette was relieved, she showed her around the flat and they settled with the rest of the girls in Marinette’s room.

“This is very nice.” Kagami looked around the pink walls. She noticed several remaining posters of Adrien, pictures of Kitty Section and the absence of individual photos of Luka. There were several photos of Marinette and Kagami together and even one with Kagami in the fencing gear with Adrien.

“So what do you girls usually do at these meetings?” Kagami inquired.

“We can do whatever you want.” Alix grinned.

“We can try out Marinette’s designs.” Rose exclaimed.

“Like the jewellery and the clothes, if that is your thing?” Juleka muttered.

“We can braid each other’s hair.” Mylenne proposed.

“You did really nice job with Hannah’s hair yesterday.” Rose told Mylenne.

“Thank you.” Mylenne smiled. “Kagami and Luka helped too.”

“Kagami and Luka braided Hannah’s hair?” Alya frowned.

“Yes, well, I was bad at it until Luka showed me how.” Kagami blushed.

“We could try out this jewellery.” Juleka muttered as she studied the newest creations from her friend.

“And this stuff.” Alix found a pair of gloves in white and light blue with the open fingers. “This is so cool I’m keeping it. What do you want for it.”

The girls were changing the accessories, Mylenne adjusted their hair and Alya was taking pictures, Kagami insisted on posting them on her social network.

Hannah arrived with her brothers.

“This is girl’s hanging out.” Alya frowned.

“I got this.” Marinette smiled and offered boys some pastries and TV time in her living room. She saved the option of the video games only if the situation became more desperate. The boys were rather happy to be in front of a TV (that they did not have at home) with food and Marinette dragged Hannah upstairs.

“Girl, you still have your braids.” Rose cooed.

Hannah smiled.

“I’m surprised she invited Kagami over.” Alya whispered.

“Why? They got along rather well yesterday.” Rose piped in.

“They got along really well.” Juleka muttered with a smirk.

Then Alya stared at the remaining posters of Adrien on the wall.

“You’d think she would have removed them.” Alya spoke out loud.

“Why?” Kagami inquired.

“Because … “ Alya looked around to the other girls for a save, but everyone was busy with something.

“You do know don’t you?” Kagami observed Alya carefully.

“Know what?” Alya pretended to be confused.

“I know Marinette likes Adrien.” Kagami smiled.

“You know?” Alya raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, I do know.” Kagami confirmed.

They continued with more photos of scarves and hats until Alix proposed to make a picnic in the park. Marinette picked up the pastries while Rose took the basket with other food she assembled with Juleka and they all went to the park.

There was a change in the set of the photo shoot. Adrien strolled around the set and waited to be called back to continue with the shoot, he regretted leaving his phone in his bag when he first noticed two boys chasing a ball around the park, then he saw the girls on the other side. He walked over without a second thought.

“Hello, can I join for a minute?” Adrien asked politely.

“Watch this.” Alix nudged Kagami.

“H..hi A...drien.” Marinette stuttered (when was she to stop that? She had decided rather determinedly that she was going to treat him as a friend.) “Of course!” She added.

“Thank you, Marinette. That is very kind of you.” Adrien smiled warmly.

Marinette just got more pink in her face.

“Yould wou lick some pastries?” Marinette offered one box. “Would you lick … No, I mean like, do you like pastries?”

Alix snickered, Alya rolled her eyes, Kagami observed the interaction without any expression. Her friend was a hopeless case, obviously. Hannah was struggling to understand anything.

“Thank you, I have a photo shoot for the whole day.” Adrien continued while he took a cookie to eat.

“That’s bad.” Alix cut in.

“Well, it gets worse actually.” Adrien looked at Marinette. “I get partnered up for the afternoon.”

Marinette took the message and her heart was breaking for the boy.

“Is it Lila?” Kagami clenched her fists.

“It can’t be Lila.” Hannah frowned. “She is on a mission”

“She is visiting a hospital in a refugee camp today.” Rose added.

“Yes, exactly, she was telling us about it on Friday.” Mylenne confirmed.

“With Prince Ali?” Alya inquired, her phone in her hands, she was checking her messages. “I’m sending that girl a message right now.”

Adrien was called back to the set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will the girls do?


	24. How to ruin a photo shoot?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the title again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry but Lila is coming back

How to ruin a photo shoot?

“I need something for the stains.” Marinette whispered. Hannah heard her.

“Citric acid.” She produced a package of the powder. “Removes some colour too.”

“Wait, Adrien.” Marinette took a bottle of water from the basket and added the powder.. “Please take this lemonade with you. It is not water as the bottle says and it is made with citric acid.”

“Wow, no stuttering.” Alix whispered to Kagami.

“And be careful. It is really strong and it leaves permanent stains because it changes the colour of coloured garments.” She added. She looked straight into his eyes and hoped he got the message. She was giving him the weapon, she hoped he could use it to save himself.

Adrien looked straight into her eyes, he understood he was given something he was supposed to use to save himself from the photo shoot with Lila. He wrapped his hands around Marinette’s hands while he was taking it. It felt nice to hold her hands like that, he wanted to stay like that, he wanted to stay, period.

“But it looks just like water and it is in a water bottle so be careful it does not get mixed up.” She continued talking. The boy walked away from the girls with his head low, he was given the weapon, but it looked so useless, like one of Ladybug’s lucky charms. It was never him, it was never Chat Noir who made plans on how to win a battle with a fork, it was his lady. And she was not there. Marinette gave him some clues. Permanent stains, looks just like water.

Adrien returned to the photo shoot and Vincent was able to take a few good shots before she arrived. Lila was there early. She probably appeared in the park as soon as she got the message from Alya. She was busy promoting her persona with the staff so Adrien managed to sneak away and into the tent with the clothes. There it was, a steam iron and a bottle of water. Of course. Marinette was a genius. He switched the bottles.

“Why don’t you do your hair and make up while we get your clothes pressed?” Vincent proposed to Lila. Adrien quickly escaped the tent and avoided her clutch. He took out the phone from his bag and pretended nobody needed him. He looked at the photos that the girls posted on social media. He smiled and started to place comments. ‘My favourite partner for photo shoots.’ Under a photo of Juleka. ‘What a beautiful design-er.’ for a photo with Marinette. He continued to praise the girls who modelled the designs, he would be facing his father’s wrath if he so openly praised the designs themselves.

“Are you pressing the clothes?” Lila asked the assistant who was busy with something else.

“Not yet.” The woman answered.

Adrien frowned. If that woman ruined the clothes for Lila, she would be punished by his father, and he could not do that, he quickly ran back to the tent.

“Oh, hi, I think I accidentally took your water, this must be my tonic.” Adrien said as he offered the bottle to the assistant. The woman checked if his bottle contained water and returned the bottle to him.

He walked around the set nervously. The boys were still chasing the ball and the girls were having their picnic. He wanted to be there, some force was pulling him in that direction.

Soon he was chasing the ball with Hannah’s brothers. It was safe to say that the two kids were better at it than him. They stole the ball whenever he was leading it.

“Adrien, what are you doing? You are going to ruin your clothes. Come back here!” Lila shouted over the park.

Adrien continued to play with more energy. Perhaps he could ruin himself, his own clothes and avoid the photo shoot.

Vincent and Nathalie were calling him back when he finally gave in and walked back to the tent.

“Oh Adrien.” Lila cooed. “I’m so thirsty, may I have some of your water?” She snatched the bottle from his hands. Just at that moment he realized how to ruin his own clothes, but it was too late. He withdrew himself quickly. She started to drink, but her face scrunched and she spat the liquid, partly over herself, mostly over his suit.

“What’s this?” Lila screeched.

“My tonic water.” Adrien replied quietly.

“You can have it back.” She pushed the bottle towards him.

“I would not drink anything from that bottle now.” He made sure that the disgust in his face was obvious.

“It is okay, your suit is going to dry, you were supposed to change for this shoot anyway.” The assistant ushered him into the tent. “Just stay in the sun Lila, it will get dry quickly.”

Adrien took his time to change.

When he got out, he noticed most of the sky was covered with thick grey clouds, the girls on the other side of the park were packing up and Lila was sitting on a chair with few very light stains on her dress. He smirked.

“Okay, Adrien is ready, you must be dry by now.” Vincent called.

“Nathalie, are you sure my father designed that.” Adrien pointed to the dress.

His father’s assistant frowned and took the girl back to the changing room and called his father to agree on what to do.

Adrien walked over to his bag.

“As a god of destruction, I am proud of you kid.” Plagg greeted his chosen.

“It is not over yet.” He looked at the phone. The girls posted a few more photos form the park that he could comment and the most recent photo of Marinette and Kagami with Hannah appeared. He smiled and left a few emojis.

Then he got back on his feet.

“You have to change to the suit you were just wearing for her second dress, but that suit is ruined too.” Nathalie was furious.

“I’m sorry. She insisted to drink from my bottle and I did not know Lila would splay it all over us.” Adrien smiled apologetically, it was good he trained as a model.

“I am going to retrieve spare garments, you do your best and hurry up while there is some useful light left.” Nathalie warned and walked away.

Adrien knew Lila was going to appear soon wearing something and he would have to model with her.

He could hear her voice.

He could sense her walking out from the tent.

Like one of those monsters from the horror films that you couldn’t see but you know it was there.

And you couldn’t escape.

“Hey Adrien.” Another voice called from his side.

He turned around and saw Kagami. He noticed Luka on his bike in the distance. Kagami was coming over holding something in the palm of her hand. He noticed the bottle in the grass and picked it up just because he hated seeing litter around.

Lila was stomping over determinedly.

“Marinette made this interesting new creation.” Kagami spoke slowly as she approached, she made sure her pace would lead her to Adrien just a moment before Lila was there.

“Mlle Rossi, you forgot your accessory.” Vincent shouted and an assistant was running over.

Adrien was surprised to see Kagami was checking how far Lila was as if she was waiting for her.

“Marinette could not come to show you herself. You should smell it when she comes close. Make sure you close your eyes. I’ll tap you.” Kagami whispered.

Adrien smiled and wondered what did his friends think of this time.

Lila was just there.

“There, it is, my new perfume.” Kagami said out loud and offered her hand.

Adrien leaned over.

Vincent and an assistant with a scarf in her hands ran over.

“New perfume?” Lila panted.

“Why don’t you try it too?” Kagami offered. She noticed the girl was panting and the plan might backfire. She taped Adrien’s shoulder as soon as Lila started to bend.

Adrien inhaled.

There was an intense smell of pepper and something else.

He sneezed.

Whatever powder was in Kagami’s hand was now in Lila’s eyes.

Adrien took a step back and opened his eyes. He noticed Kagami had closed eyes too and wiped the palm of her hand in her skirt.

Lila was screaming in pain.

“What is it?” Adrien asked.

“Oh, it is a new kind of perfume, it comes as a powder, very useful for sports, but you must have blown it into Lila’s eyes when you sneezed.” Kagami explained flatly.

“My eyes.” Lila screamed.

“Quick, wash out her eyes.” The assistant instructed. She pointed her hand to the bottle Adrien was holding. “Wash out her eyes.”

Vincent took the bottle from his hands and washed Lila’s eyes, he emptied the contents of the bottle but the girl only screamed harder.

“You have to take her back to the tent and see if she is okay.” Adrien did not have to feign concern. He looked at the discarded bottle. It was the bottle Marinette gave him. It was empty. Obviously, whatever Marinette’s plan was, did not include washing the eyes with citric acid.

“Nathalie wants to talk to you.” Vincent called.

Kagami greeted him with a small smile and left.

“I need some time to fix her eyes, but she is good.” The make up artist was talking to Nathalie over a video call.

Lila was fuming.

Absent mindedly, Adrien took a cup of coffee from the table. He thought it was water and realized his mistake only when he started drinking it.

Several people were around Lila and she made a show out of her injuries.

“I’m so sorry about this. I’m doing my best you know. I want to glow for that photo shoot today.” Lila whined.

“The eyes are only slightly red, I assure you that she is good for the photo shoot.” The make up artist talking to Nathalie on screen while she was doing her job.

Someone gave him the tablet with a video call from Nathalie.

“What was that?” Nathalie inquired.

“I sneezed at Kagami’s new perfume.” Adrien explained with a shrug. “And Lila was too close.” Like few thousand kilometres too close but who counted.

“Okay, hold on please, I have to talk to your father.” Nathalie said and switched off her microphone.

Adrien sipped on his coffee.

Lila was proclaimed finished. Most of the crew went outside the tent.

“I don’t know what you and your girlfriend think you are doing, but I assure you it is you who is going to look at me with lust in your eyes today.” Lila walked over towards him. She was about to push him, but she pushed the cup with coffee and it splayed all over Adrien. The boy shrieked and then glanced towards his tablet quickly. Nathalie was staring at the screen with disbelief all over her face.

“Why did you do this Lila?” Adrien glared and took a step back.

“Did what” She intentionally flipped the cup on him once more just for good measure.

Adrien walked out of the tent backwards.

“Oh, so much passion between you two.” Vincent cooed. “But we still need you dry and clean for the photo shoot, please change, both of you.”

Adrien returned the tablet to Vincent and went around the tent and behind a simple changing screen to take off his clothes. He took off the suit and put on his pants when he heard the voices from the tent that yet another pair of outfits was found for him and Lila.

Adrien grabbed his school bag that still herd his shirt and t-shirt and went out from the changing screen determined to just walk away. The first droplets started to fall from the sky and offered the perfect excuse for him to disappear from the set.

He ran straight into Luka

“She said they would just keep finding more clothes for you.” Luka grinned.

“What? Who?” Adrien stopped in his tracks. Why was Luka there? Adrien was shirtless and determined to run away from the photo shoot. The other boy was rather red in the face but smiled.

“Marinette.” Luka grinned.

“Look, I don’t know what is her next plan, but we are going straight out of here.” Adrien took a few determined steps.

“May I offer you a ride?” Luka motioned for Adrien to sit on his bike and the two boys drove away while the rain intensified.

“Kagami is already at Marinette’s.” Luka added.

“Is that where we are going?” Adrien inquired.

“Why not?” Luka shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are free to trash my choice for a chemical ...


	25. Crashing in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the recipe for Marinette fragrance is revealed and kids have some fun time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The electricity is gone (again) so I'm posting this before I run out of battery.  
> (might contain errors)

Crashing in

Luka and Adrien were soaking by the time they reached the bakery.

“Ring the bell on the side door. The shop is locked for the day.” Luka instructed. Adrien hopped off the bicycle and did as instructed. Rain was falling on his naked upper part of the body, but he did not care, the excitement pushed any other sensation in the background.

Hannah opened the door.

The boys stepped inside and Hannah locked the door behind them. They were acutely aware of water dripping off them. Hannah did not need to look at them more.

“Be right back.” She shouted and run up the stairs. “Girls in kitchen.”

Marinette was packing macarons in the bakery kitchen.

“I just don’t know if it worked to finally stop that shoot.” Kagami concluded whatever she was talking about.

“I will think of something else, just to fill this box with the order for my parents.” Marinette replied.

The two boys were standing below the stairs close to the entrance of the bakery kitchen. Hannah was running back upstairs. Luka’s jacket and helmet were wet so he took them off while water droplets covered Adrien’s (still shirtless) torso and hair.

“I brought the trays, but I am sure your parents do not expect me back as long as it is raining like this.” Luka greeted.

“Thank you Luka.” Marinette greeted without looking up. She was entirely focused on packing the extra macarons and did not want to mess it up.

Kagami did look and smiled at the boy but then she looked back down to the box. Luka stood in front of Adrien so girls could not see he was in fact half naked with water dripping from the hair of both of them.

“And finally packed.” Marinette released a breath of relief.

Once the boxes were safely on the table, Luka stepped aside.

Kagami took a good look at both boys and started to laugh.

Marinette finally raised her eyes.

“eep!” She put one hand over her mouth not to scream. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the half naked blonde model boy in the door frame. Then she slapped the other hand over her eyes.

That made everyone laugh.

“Marinette.” Adrien smiled and walked over to the girl. “You have posters of me in your room.”

Marinette had difficulty breathing because she herself had covered her own mouth and nose. That boy! He appeared in her house half naked and wet from rain, and he looked at her so gently, so honestly, so … not photo shoot like. But it made her totally useless.

Kagami took the hand that covered Marinette’s mouth.

“Breathe.” Kagami whispered in her ear.

Adrien took the hand that covered her eyes and removed it, but Marinette shut her eyes. She needed to do that just to keep breathing.

“It is okay, Marinette, you can open your eyes now.” Adrien smiled and held her hand.

“I can’t.” She couldn’t. She couldn’t open her eyes and look at Adrien half naked in her bakery kitchen while Luka was there. While Kagami was there. Kagami was holding her hand. Her hand was warm and dry. Adrien was holding her hand. His hand was warm but wet, she felt the water droplets drain from his arm to her wrist.

Luka stood at the door and laughed at the whole scene.

Someone was stumbling down the stairs.

“Here” Hannah panted. She threw a towel on Luka and another towel on Adrien.

Adrien caught the towel Hannah thrown at him with one hand. He threw the towel over his shoulders with one hand while he kept holding Marinette’s hand with the other.

Kagami was preventing herself to laugh out loud. Luka dried his hair and snickered at the scene.

“It is pouring rain outside.” Luka spoke.

“Mhm.” Marinette acknowledged she heard him with her eyes closed.

“We noticed.” Kagami smirked.

Hannah wanted to ask something but somehow it did not look like a right moment, so she walked into the bakery, found the box that had a post it labelled ‘home’ on it and took it back to the flat upstairs.

“Come on Marinette, open your eyes.” Adrien teased. He shook his head and few water droplets fell on Marinette’s face. Kagami got sprayed too.

“Come on” Kagami whined and wiped the water off her face. She took few steps back and let go of Marinettes hand in the process. Marinette raised her hand to wipe her own face from the water droplets, but Adrien stood so close that her hand encountered his chest (his cold and wet chest).

“Eep.” She stepped back but Adrien pulled her back.

She opened her eyes to keep herself straight and run into his body.

“Come on, you teased her enough.” Luka said and wrapped the towel around Adrien’s torso.

“Hannah took the pastries upstairs.” Kagami added. We might go too.

“First you are going to tell me what was that stunt you pulled.” Adrien demanded.

Marinette was breathing and started to assume normal colour. Then she smirked.

“The water was with citric acid, I told you.” Marinette smiled.

“I was supposed to ruin my clothes with it?” Adrien inquired.

“Your clothes, her clothes, whatever. It depends on the colourant.” Marinette shrugged.

“It worked.” Adrien beamed. “And it was Lila who spilled it, so I should not be in trouble with my father for that.”

“Oh.” Three teenagers exchanged excited looks.

“And that Marinette fragrance that Kagami was wearing?” The boy continued.

“She rubbed pepper and feather onto my wrist.” Kagami explained.

“And I dusted some spicy mix my mother uses into her fist.” Marinette shrugged. “It was supposed to make her eyes turn red so she would give up on the photo shoot today.”

“And if she washed out her eyes instantly?” Kagami asked.

“Well then her eyes would have been just a little red.” Marinette shrugged.

“And if she washed them with the citric acid?” Adrien inquired.

“Oh my … “ Marinette stared at the boy. “You didn’t?”

“I didn’t.” Adrien smiled. “Someone else washed her eyes, perhaps she did it herself.”

“I don’t know how it works on eyes.” Marinette was worried.

“But even that was not enough, she insisted that she was willing to do the photo shoot and they even found more clothes to continue.” Adrien sighed.

“So I have helped our little princess to escape the evil witch.” Luka grinned.

“Oh thank you my prince on the white horse (or should it be prince charming?).” Adrien turned to the other boy.

“It was my duty to save the damsel and offer a ride on my noble horse.” Luka continued with the show and bowed lightly.

The girls were giggling at their antics.

Then Adrien felt more water dripped from his hair and took the towel he was wrapped into, wrapped his hair in it and dried his hair.

That left his torso naked and exposed.

Marinette blushed again and averted her eyes away.

Adrien sighed and put the towel over his shoulders and around him again.

“I should have a spare shirt in my bag.” The blonde model decided he had teased his shy classmate enough. He walked to the door where he left his bag. He forgot to close it. He found slightly wet shirt and t-shirt, and one wet and grumpy kwami. And no Camembert.

“Okay.” My clothes and my phone are wet.

“Switch your phone off, we will put it into rice.” Marinette said from the kitchen.

“Do you have anything you designed that Adrien could wear?” Kagami asked Marinette.

Did she have? Did she have something designed with Adrien in mind that would fit him? Of course she did.

“Come on upstairs, you can hang whatever you want to dry on those bars.” Marinette invited while she was running up the stairs.

Robbie and Eddie were sitting in front of a TV in almost catatonic state. The tray with pastries in front of them contained only crumbs.

Hannah was in the kitchen, washing dishes.

“You don’t have to do this, you are a guest here.” Marinette whispered.

Hannah looked hurt by that statement.

“Just make yourself feel like at home.” Marinette corrected.

Hannah beamed and continued to wash.

“Okay, rice.” Marinette fetched a bowl and poured some dry rice into it. Then she put it on the table and Adrien buried his phone in rice.

“Okay, are you in trouble, do you want to call anybody?” Marinette asked and offered her own phone.

“I could message my driver or Nahalie that I am safe and dry and he can stay safe and dry too but my phone got wet.” Adrien pondered. Then he realized he did not know the number, any of the numbers, by heart, so he shrugged.

“Okay, we can try when your phone dries.” Marinette smiled.

“Actually, I can send the message to your driver or Nathalie.” Kagami smiled.

“Now dry clothes.” Marinette ran up the stairs into her room and turned around. Juleka, Rose, Alya, Alix and Mylenne were lined up on her chaise and on the floor and watched a film on her computer. She turned around to the large chest where the gifts she made for Adrien were still hidden. She concentrated, remembered exactly how the package she wanted to grab looked like and did it in a few seconds. The chest was closed and locked and she had the wrapped t-shirt in her hands.

Adrien dictated the message to Kagami while he inspected the fridge with his bag over his shoulder. He found what he was looking for, there was a round box with cheese. He took a piece of Camembert and smuggled it into his shoulder bag. He closed the fridge and checked his bag. A very grumpy black cat stared at the boy. Adrien took a dry corner of his towel and ruffled Plagg dry. If anyone saw him, they thought he was drying the insides of his shoulder bag.

“Here.” Marinette gave him the package as soon as she god downstairs. She was very focused on a certain magnet on the fridge behind him. “The girls are watching a film upstairs if you want to join them.” Marinette told Hannah who just finished with washing the tray that her brothers used. Hannah ran upstairs and Marinette gave Adrien the package.

Adrien opened it and found a black t-shirt with green horizontal lines that if viewed at a certain angle revealed different letters. Adrien admired the work for a moment before he put it on.

“Why do you have a men’s t-shirt with ‘hot stuff’ written on it?” Kagami asked calmly. She was looking at the shirt from a side.

Marinette dropped the empty tin tray from her hands. It produced a lot of noise on the ceramics on the kitchen floor.

That was the t-shirt she intended for their firs anniversary of dating. She made a mistake.

“I … um … That green stuff? Well when you use the flash you see only that in the photo, the rest is dark so I thought … you know.” Marinette looked at the floor and wished to fall right through it. That kind of material was very expensive and she got this little piece for a bargain and thought it was a good thing to use for such a gift. She should have stepped over the girls, moved one or two of them to open her wardrobe and get one of those shirts that Adrien modelled already.

“Hey, that’s cool. Hot stuff. I like it.” Adrien smiled and sat at the table.

Marinette was very focused on something away from him and blushed.

“Is there any food left?” Luka peeked into the box. That startled the girl back to reality.

“I can heat up what maman left me for lunch.” Marinette produced a box from the fridge and put it into the microwave.

They ate some food, drank juice and hot chocolate and teased and joked until the film that girls were watching finished.

“Hey there.” Alix greeted as she was the one to get down the stairs. “I’m here to fetch more food. It is still raining.”

Marinette passed her the box with those few pastries that were left.

“And, by the way, Hannah fell asleep on the floor. Can we take the blanket off from your bed and cover her?” Alix inquired while Marinette was filling up the tray with different sweets.

Without a word Adrien and Luka were up the stairs, few steps at a time. Luka stopped abruptly, this was the first time he was in Marinette’s room and there was just so much pink that he had to adjust.

Adrien took the extra step to reach Hannah.

“We are putting her to bed.” Adrien decided and lifted her off the floor.

It was a complicated manoeuvre. Because the room was packed. Adrien picked up Hannah, Luka climbed up and took the girl from his hands. Adrien was up by the loft bed and both boys covered her with a blanket and tucked her in.

“She is really small.” Luka whispered.

“She is really tight sleeper.” Adrien added.

Rain was producing noise on the skylight window that was lulling everyone to sleep. The boys looked at the sleeping girl and decided to go downstairs.

“We put the baby to bed.” Luka announced proudly to Kagami.

“Proud fathers.” Kagami teased. “We put blankets over her sleeping brothers.”

“Proud mothers.” Luka winked.

“That is two kids, double the work.” Kagami put her hands on her hips.

“But you didn’t have to carry them.” Luka replied calmly.

“You carried her?” Kagami raised her eyebrows.

“We did.” Adrien flexed his muscles. Kagami gave her best unimpressed face.

Marinette returned from the living room.

“The boys are fine, we can watch the TV if we sit on the cushions on the floor.” She offered.

“Film or games?” Luka asked everyone present.

“Games are noisy.” Both Adrien and Kagami complained simultaneously.

“Okay, so a film then. Let’s pick something.” They played a film picked up by Luka, and arranged the pillows on the floor. They all saw the film before, save Kagami.

Half an hour into the film, Kagami sat, fully awake and stared at the screen with her back leaning onto the sofa. Luka had his head in her lap, Marinette had her head on his chest and Adrien on his belly. All three of them were sleeping. Kagami noticed she was the only one awake, shrugged and continued to watch the film.

“I am taking a photo of this. This is pure blackmail material.” Alya whispered to Alix who was snickering by her side.

“Be careful who gets to see that photo, you’ll get Adrien into trouble.” Alix warned.

Alya took a few photos with a flash, but was utterly disappointed when she saw almost nothing on them, save the words ‘hot stuff’ written on Adrien’s t-shirt. Alix could not stop snickering when she saw the photos.

“I just wanted to send the photos to Nino.” Alya whined.

Alix took her own phone, switched off the flash, put the phone on a shelf to keep it steady and took the photo. It was a selfie of her, Kagami with a peace sign, three sleeping teens and two balls of blankets on the couch that also contained two boys. She sent the photo to Nino.

Ten minutes later someone rang at the door.

Alix let Nino inside.

“I can’t believe dude did not let me know.” The boy sighed.

“Shh he is asleep. And his phone got wet.” Alix whispered.

“Oh.” Nino agreed that was a good enough reason not to contact him.

Nino looked at his best bro and the company and smiled. Then he followed Alix as she motioned for him. He found Alya and the girls in Marinette’s room watching a film.

“What’s this?” Nino inquired as soon as he saw his girlfriend.

“This is girls hanging out, no boys allowed.” Alya hissed back.

“Since when is my best bro a girl?” Nino took his stand but spoke quietly because Juleka and Rose were clearly asleep on the chaise. “And why didn’t you message me that he was here?”

“I .. um … thought he sent you a message.” Alya retorted.

“His phone is dead, otherwise his bodyguard would have picked him up already.” Alix replied as she sat down on the floor next to Mylenne and asked to be filled in on what she missed in the film.

Nino retreated downstairs and sat next to Kagami.

“Hi, I’m Nino” He offered his hand.

“Kagami.” She shook his hand.

Marinette started to stir in her sleep and Adrien moved sidewise and threw one arm around her.

“How did you all get here?” Nino inquired and Kagami told him how they rescued Adrien from a photo shoot with Lila. Well she omitted a few details that would reveal just how intentional the action was. But she knew Nino was Adrien’s best friend so she chose to trust him at least that much.

Luka opened his eyes, looked up, saw Kagami and smiled. She smiled back. She played with his hair and watched the film, Luka turned towards the screen and kept silent.

It was pleasant and peaceful, the rain drummed on the window but they were safe, warm and dry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to kill Adrien's phone to be able to keep him there ...


	26. Films

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila does some research and kids go home.  
> And yes, an akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might be giving too much credit to Lila here, she is sloppy in her lies but she did plan all that in Ladybug episode.  
> Also, the first Lila part happened before the photo shoot.

Lila did not waste her time on her homework over the weekend. But that did not mean she did not do any research. Hannah was obviously a foreigner and her mother had access to the Frontex database and all the other data related to crossing the borders. She was going to find that girl in the database.

Phase one: persuade your mother this is something she needed for a school project. Done.

Phase two: search for the girl.

There was only one Hannah Prc born in Paris, but only twelve years ago. Perhaps the girl lied about that? She searched further.

Hannah was not a citizen of either Italy or France.

The search engine on border crossing did reveal one Hannah Prc, born on the same date twelve years ago, but in a different country, was that one of those countries that appeared after that war? There was something in the TV news about that, not that news in Paris even covered that any more, they were too busy with the akuma.

Lila randomly opened different databases and searched for the name and approximate age.

Another result popped up.

“Hannah Prc, born twelve years ago was denied sanctuary in Italy because she could not be classified as a refugee since she was not a citizen of a war torn country. Request denied.”

Lila glowed. She stroke gold.

She could not locate which citizenship Hannah actually had.

According to her mother’s databases, the girl was born, but she did not exist any more.

Well, who was going in her school then?

With everything she had planned, this should have been sufficient.

She did not bother to look up the names of her parents as listed on the birth certificate.

Now how about that photo shoot?

Lila would have been akumatized right on the photo shoot if butterflies liked flying in heavy rain. (Magic or not). Nathalie could not avoid bothering him with what was going on once the first garment was ruined. Gabriel was going nuts about the ruined outfits, wasted time and money for the photo shoot and the wasted opportunity to akumatize his favourite customer (aside a certain pigeon fan) because he had to deal with the first two problems. The rain finally ruined the shoot and he could dedicate his full attention to the last issue. He still focused on Lila’s feelings, perhaps he could just transform and send out a butterfly? Her feelings were boiling and only getting worse with time. He went into his lair and transformed. This was getting just too good. He was not going to waste this second chance.

Nathalie learned form Adrien’s bodyguard that Adrien was warm, dry and safe, and with Kagami. That was comforting. Kagami did not reveal their exact location, which was not so comforting, but Nathalie felt safe to assume the two teens took her driverless car to go somewhere safe, probably her home. The strong showers partially flooded the streets and stopped traffic in part of the city entirely. Strong wind and intense showers and hail made the streets of Paris rather unwelcoming. The weather reports on TV were broadcast instead of the usual programme and the influx of data and photos surpassed what was usually encountered only in the worst akuma attacks. Nathalie concluded it might be for the best to let Adrien wait for the worst to pass. She went to consult her boss only to find an empty office. He was probably dealing with some magic lepidopterology again. She instructed Adrien’s bodyguard to wait in the mansion for further instructions and info from Adrien or Kagami and went on to her own office. The failed photo shoot and ruined garments required a lot of organisation. And she was going to have a busy Sunday.

Alya watched the film restlessly. Juleka and Rose fell asleep, Mylenne and Alix discussed the film, but Alya did not care about the plot in the film. She planned the day for the girls only, her boyfriend was busy with relatives. But now boys invaded her plans. Adrien and Luka appeared in Marinette’s room without warning and carried Hannah to Marinette’s bed like she weighted almost nothing. Then they dutifully disappeared from the girl room. That was fine. Kagami and Marinette stayed downstairs with the boys. Alya did spy on them from the hatch door, but Alix and Mylenne kept pulling her away with ‘leave them alone’ kind of requests. The four of them were having a nice time. Alya was probably having a nice time with the girls too, except she didn’t feel that way.

Then she went downstairs with Alix and found a scene to remember. But when she tried to take a photo, she failed, that boy had to have anti-paparazzi clothing, of course he did. She returned to watch the film and just began to enjoy it when Nino arrived. She wanted to talk to him, she missed him, but with all the frustrations, unsatisfactory answers and something that Kagami and Marinette were scheming just when they were about to leave the park (and purposefully left Alya and the rest of the group out of their plans) accumulated frustration in her and she unleashed it on Nino when he appeared. Didn’t he say he had no time to see her that day? She purposefully turned to the film and decided to wipe out anything else from her surroundings. She was in a bad mood and she did not want to be akumatized.

Adrien woke up with someone in his arms. It was Marinette. Sleeping Marinette. His head was on something that was shaking. It was Luka’s belly. Luka was laughing. Marinette stirred in her sleep because her pillow (Luka’s chest) was also shaking. Adrien directed her head on his shoulder. Luka was laughing while someone played with his hair. Oh that was Kagami, and she was laughing too. And right next to Kagami, there was Nino. Nino was laughing at the screen but glanced towards his best bro and winked then he turned back to the screen and laughed again. Adrien turned his face so that he could see the TV screen. He could not see much, but hearing the conversation was sufficient, he started to laugh too.

Marinette was waking up. It was warm and cosy and she felt safe. Except everyone was laughing. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was black. The owner of the black shirt was laughing. Her arm was over _his_ chest, not hers. It was definitely his chest. She looked up, he had blonde hair and green eyes and looked at her with a warm and gentle smile.

“eep.” She sat up so suddenly that she felt dizzy. She dropped her head back down and Adrien directed her to land softly back on his shoulder.

“Slowly, you’re going to get dizzy.” He warned quietly.

The three of them slowly sat up and they all shuffled their position so that Nino was sitting next to Adrien.

“When did you get here?” Adrien asked quietly.

“About half an hour ago.” Nino shrugged. “I was just very close. My relatives went to a restaurant nearby and when the shower started to pour we just had to stay there. I got the message from Alix when the rain looked bearable, my relatives ordered a taxi to take them to my home.”

“Alix?” Adrien frowned.

“Yes Alix. Now I know your phone got wet and Marinette here was unable to contact me _for obvious reasons_.” Nino stressed the last three words. Those obvious reasons made her blush severely while Luka and Kagami looked at each other and chuckled.

“But I have no idea why Alya kept silent.” Nino concluded.

“It was girl’s hang out. She is still sulking for that trick you pulled when you had your boy’s party at Adrien’s.” Marinette explained.

“Party at Adrien’s?” Kagami raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, just boys allowed.” Adrien replied with a tone of regret in his voice.

“And Marinette.” Nino teased.

The girls came down the stairs one by one.

“The rain had almost stopped, film is finished, we cleared up a little so we are going home.” Alya informed the group.

Nino wanted to get on his feet.

“And this was the girls hanging out so you are not going with me mister I have relatives staying over the weekend.” Alya concluded.

“Just to let you know, Hannah is still sleeping.” Mylenne added before her greeting and the girls were gone.

“Hannah?” Nino asked.

“Yeah, you might find her brothers sleeping on the couch.” Adrien motioned with his head.

“I can see two kids, yeah, I guess I wasn’t really paying attention.” Nino adjusted his hat.

“I have to go, my car is coming over to pick me up.” Kagami stood on her feet.

“I should get those boxes to your parents if the rain subsided.” Luka added.

“Kagami, wait please, I should see if my phone is alive.” Adrien begged, took his phone from the rice and switched it on. The screen lit up. “Okay it is working. Thank you.”

Well, the phone was not really working, but they did manage to get the network. Adrien notified his driver where he was and that there was no hurry.

“Wait dude, let me try something.” Nino typed something in. “You should probably keep it dry for longer, your camera’s are still not working according to the system report. My phone got wet thanks to Chris.”

“Thanks dude.” Adrien replied and stuffed the phone back into the rice.

“So the four of you are ...” Nino asked after a long and awkward pause.

“Friends.” Marinette stated.

“Friends.” Adrien smiled.

“Friends.” Nino concluded. The three of them bumped their fists.

“So Luka and Kagami left us to deal with the kids.” Adrien wrapped his arm around Marinette who blushed again.

“Kids?” Nino frowned.

“Hannah and her brothers, we are adopting them. Their parents are too busy, but nice, not like my father.” Adrien continued.

“Yeah, I bring them pastries every day in the evening, but I think we ate everything we had left over in the bakery.” Marinette added worriedly.

They heard noises from Marinette’s room and soon Hannah appeared in the living room.

“Sorry.” Hannah mumbled. “Your bed.” Anything else in a foreign language was too much so soon after she woke up.

Then they noticed that her brothers opened their eyes too.

“Hey guys, you are fine, you are at my home.” Marinette greeted the boys.

“Thirsty.” one of them whispered through a stiff throat.

Hannah brought them glasses of water.

The three kids were waking up slowly in the living room.

“Kagami told me how you escaped the photo shoot. That was some prank you pulled dude.” Nino grinned.

“That was all Marinette’s planning and I can’t thank her enough.” Adrien beamed.

“And Kagami, and Hannah helped too.” Marinette added.

“And Luka finally drove me on his bicycle to here.” Adrien concluded.

Marinette let Adrien take the plastic bowl with rice with his phone in it from the counter and his semi dried clothes. His bodyguard was waiting in front of the building.

Nino went downstairs with Marinette to wave to his bro and help Marinette gather some pastries for Hannah.

“Marinette, I know it is none of my business, but can you tell me something more about our new classmate?” Nino inquired.

“She is … Nino I’d like to tell you everything, but that is really for her to reveal.” Marinette sighed. “ But if you ask her anything, make sure the questions are short and simple.”

She was thrilled to find some surplus mini quiches that were probably intended for the party in Le Grand Paris. Well, there were plenty of those left so she safely packed some. At that moment Hannah finally persuaded her brothers to go home too. Somehow, Marinette and Nino were walking across the park to take Hannah and her brothers home. The park was muddy, branches and leave from the trees littered the ground, but everything glowed in late afternoon sun. It was a short walk, less than five minutes, but Nino understood the basic story about Hannah, where her parents worked, where her brothers went to school and finally where she came from and he knew none of that was his to tell further.

Soon Marinette was home alone.

“Homework.” She sighed and went back to her room.

Adrien had to repeat his version of the events to Nathalie, it took all his training not to snicker and grin as he explained what happened at the photo shoot (leaving out several crucial details). His father was too busy to talk to him, which was probably good because he must have been in a bad mood. The photo shoot was ruined and some of the equipment too, not to mention the clothes that had to be fixed or replaced. Adrien was left to deal with his homework.

Hours later, after dinner with her parents and even more homework, Marinette noticed an akuma alert on the Ladyblog was switched on. There was very little information which was weird. She transformed, jumped on the rooftop and called Chat Noir. He answered rather quickly.

“Do you know what is it this time?” Ladybug inquired. She observed the city, the streets were partially covered in waters, several rather large branches had fallen off from the trees in the park and parts of the streets were covered in mud.

“It can only be another Chameleon. And if the information from the citizens is okay, she had been rampaging around for hours. The city is already damaged from the storm and it is not as if she is producing structural damage.” The boy concluded. He could not tell how he knew it. Because Chameleon went after Adrien first, but could not find him at home not any other places where she looked for him, then she went after Kagami, who was also nowhere to be found, but her mother was. The rest of the chain was hard to follow. Chat felt grateful that it never occurred to Lila to look for them at Marinette’s. (Note: how would I make a scene where Lila or anyone else gets to kiss Tomoe Tsurugi? The idea that Adrien’s driver does that seemed very silly so I let him pick up Adrien).

“Where is she?” Ladybug sighed. Of course Lila got akumatized, her pranks on the girl worked, and Lila was not a patient and forgiving kind, she was probably raging with anger once she realized that Adrien escaped the photo shoot. She must have looked for Adrien and Kagami, but both of them were hiding at her home, so she could not find them. Ladybug felt the urge to check on her friends but her duty called for her to deal with the akuma.

“The last definitive report is at the Eiffel Tower.” Chat checked his baton. “I’m already here and I can see a candidate.” That was a relief for Ladybug, the only way to help her friends now was to deal with the akuma.

“Great, be there in two.” Ladybug cut the call. She was only sorry that she did not transform and prevent this, she should have anticipated this, she should have just left and transformed, but she couldn’t do that, everyone was at her house, instead she was sleeping on Luka and Adrien, what kind of a hostess was she?

It was not exactly the same as the first time, because Chat Noir did not get kissed (nor Adrien). They both knew what to do. Lila was always a dangerous akuma, but both heroes were almost used to her tricks. And they could not define the akumatized object again even as they watched the akuma kiss and take shape of a street clown.

This time Ladybug caught two oysters from a cousine counter with her yoyo and gave one to Chat. They both acted as baits and were ready to plat the shell in the way of her lips. Chameleon was defeated swiftly and Ladybug and Chat Noir bumped their fists. Then they both looked at Lila sideways with few comforting words. Ladybug carefully approached closer to check her eyes and her face. She looked uninjured. Lila glared back at the heroes and they both left without bothering to try and check on the victim further. They felt more comfortable if their miraculous was out of the reach of her hands even when Lila was a civilian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no way for Gabriel to not akumatize Lila after that, right?  
> Next chapter goes back to school and more schemes.


	27. A Phone Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila is in action again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one long chapter today.

A Phone Thief

Adrien felt blessed and grateful, the information about his disappearance in the middle of the photo shoot did not reach his father in its raw format. His father did express his utter disappointment with the results of the yesterday’s photo shoot, the ruined clothing items and wasted working hours, he did question his son about his version of events and Adrien was even briefer in his explanation than with Nathalie. His father never bothered to ask Adrien what he did after the rain started to pour. It was a short meeting just after breakfast and Adrien was released to go to school.

Hannah and Marinette burst into the classroom moments before the last bell rang, out of breath.

“Huh, we really managed the lockers, you were right.” Marinette smiled to Hannah.

Warm smiles for greetings and they were on their seats the moment Ms Bustier started with her roll call with Adrien. The said boy reached the school only minutes before them. Adrien was setting up his stuff on his desk and smiled to the girls. Marinette felt her stomach flutter and she hugged her history book (that she just retrieved from her locker) slightly tighter. Hannah bounced on the steps to her seat and slid onto the bench next to Ivan. She was glad that she got rid of her lunch box, it did not fit the backpack with the large number of books and notebooks she carried on a daily basis.

The teacher finished with the roll call and asked if there were any questions before she could proceed with teaching. It was usually a mere rhetorical question, but not that morning. Lila asked Ms Bustier how the school handled anonymous complaints that year and the teacher explained that there were no changes with the respect to the last one. That did not leave Lila happy, but it alarmed both Adrien and Marinette. They knew Lila was scheming something.

“If you have placed an anonymous complaint for something that happened during class, then the teacher who was teaching that class gets to verify the complaint first.” Ms Bustier explained. She knew there was an anonymous complaint, because Mme Mendeleev told her there was one, but that the other teacher was about to handle it and she did not need to worry.

That made Lila stop pursuing the issue. Her complaint for nudity was probably with Mme Mendeleev and Lila glowed in anticipation on what the usually stern teacher was going to do to Hannah. She just needed to exercise patience, which was extremely hard to do after the photo shoot from yesterday. She spent the time before the classes had started complaining and whining about everything that happened, her eyes were only saved because a famous doctor (that existed only in a famous TV series) visited Paris as a tourist and helped her. She caught pneumonia due to terrible rain that caught her in the tent and she was transported to her home by personal limousine of Mr Agreste himself. She intended to trash Adrien for not joining her in the said limousine and for not inviting her to the Agreste mansion to warm up and recover. But the boy was fashionably late that morning and managed to avoid her wrath. She was so angry when she got home last night that she got akumatized easily. Unfortunately those two pests defeated her and she was back home, defeated and angry.

The teacher was calling her name. It was time to turn in the worksheets they got for homework.

“I’m really sorry Ms Bustier, but I couldn’t possibly work on the homework, my eyes got injured during the photo shoot with Adrien yesterday.” Lila cried her eyes out and got one week extension.

Alix raised her eyebrows and whispered with Mylenne. Only that morning Lila was showing them an article about her and Clara Nightingale and reading them praises written in the text from her phone. (The fact that Lila wrote it was beside the point.) There was nothing wrong with her eyesight only half an hour ago. Then Mylenne replied how she got her homework done long ago, like on Wednesday or something and could have helped Lila if she only asked.

Ms Buster asked the class to be quiet as she started with the teaching.

Hannah did not understand the commotion as she prepared herself for the lesson. She often missed the class drama even back home where she did not struggle with the language, but here in France, the pressure to follow the school curriculum was too big for her to engage in anything not curriculum related. The book was opened, the notebook was opened, she repeated several new words she learned last night when she read the lecture in advance.

“Hey model boy, what happened at that photo shoot yesterday?” Alya called as soon as the short break started. “Lila was telling us how she almost lost her eyes and all her clothes got ruined.” Lila was standing beside Alya and did her best to look hurt.

“She spilled some juice over herself and I sneezed when I smelled Kagami’s perfume.” Adrien shrugged. Nino glared at Alya, but his girlfriend missed the message. The boy tried to explain to his girlfriend that Adrien did not want photo shoots with Lila, that his father coerced him to do it, but Alya insisted that Adrien preferred Lila to any other model. It was so hard to reason with her once she made up her mind.

“And then you did not go to help her, you just disappeared on her and walked out from the photo shoot.” Alya continued. Lila was clutching Alya’s arm and pretended to be scared of Adrien.

“Yeah, Lila was so hurt that she insisted on continuing the photo shoot although the light was bad and all the clothes got ruined. She got to change in the tent. I went outside and behind a screen to change and then the rain started.” Adrien replied with a feigned smile. “She collected the whole shooting staff around her to tend to her every need, I was not able to approach her.” (Not that he ever wanted). “And I had to change on my own.” (Which he preferred.) “And since all the staff were tending to her, the equipment got wet and ruined.” Well the last thing was partially true, it definitely got wet. Some of the temporary props were also ruined. But he had to hear that in the morning so he felt inspired to just trash it all out.

Lila was sobbing more and more forcefully during his rant.

“You could have brought her with you, we could have all hang out at Marinette’s.” Alya continued to argue Lila’s case. But the last statement made Adrien flinch, Marinette wanted to slam her head in her desk, Nino nervously played with his red hat, but Lila, because this was obviously news for her, flashed pure anger on her face, that even Nino noticed. Of course, the bakery was right there, why didn’t she think of that? Why didn’t she think that Adrien would run away, and to the bakery? She was protected from the rain in the tent, she insisted on going home with Adrien, but they could not locate the boy, so she was escorted under a giant umbrella into a car that drove her home. And that was where she god akumatized. She assumed the boy simply went home while she was still in the tent. She had to do something, and she had to do something now.

“I knew the fashion world was cruel.” Lila whined between the sobs. “I am your father’s muse.” She threw a nasty look towards Marinette who was not even watching her. “I just did it to help your father’s company and you. I did it for you. And this is how you treat me?” She was hanging off Alya’s shoulder, Alya’s phone was in her back pocket.

Marinette was holding her head and stared at the open textbook, she was not reading, she was not even pretending to read, she just wanted to snap at the liar, but knew that would be counterproductive. She was more annoyed by Alya than Lila at that moment anyway.

“Well, what you just heard from me was just a fraction of what I got from Nathalie and my father, so better get used to it then.” Adrien was done being nice to her. It did not work to protect his friends. It only caused him suffering and his friends went out of their way to save him.

Lila continued her act by running away. Alya looked livid. Marinette was fuming in her seat, she did feel guilty for framing Lila, and she blamed herself for getting her akumatized, but this act was just too much. This act was something that just proven to Marinette that what she did yesterday was right, even if it got Lila akumatized.

“She got akumatized for that Adrien, akumatized, again!” Alya cried as if it was Adrien himself who produced the violet butterfly and threw Lila in its path.

Adrien was having his own internal struggle, he knew they were ‘not nice’ to Lila yesterday, and he had to be nice always and to everybody, no matter how hard they offended him, no matte what kind of insults they were spewing. But he had enough, he couldn’t do it any more, and even if she got akumatized, he just could not be sorry for escaping her.

“Calm down babe, it’s not Adrien’s fault that storm was so bad yesterday.” Nino tried to make amends between his best bro and his girlfriend. The boy was happy that his best friend was able to escape and spend time with his friends.

Hannah noticed the commotion, but she was too consumed in history lesson she just had and too concerned about the forthcoming lecture in literature to even attempt to understand what was going on.

Lila was back in the classroom just as the bell rang with a sly smile on her face. Adrien noticed that just the moment before he turned around from Alya to look towards the teacher. It raised all his internal alarms to the point that he wanted to jump and extort the information on the spot.

Alya mouthed to Lila “Are you okay.” But Lila just shook her head and ran to her place, she knew Alya was going to send her a message from her phone and to continue to exchange a string of messages during the whole period.

“There is something going on, I did not like the look on Lila’s face.” Adrien muttered with his head bowed. Plagg tapped his chest to note he was awake and listening.

“Yeah dude, I don’t like where things are going too.” Nino muttered back with his head low as he thought his best bro was talking to him.

Marinette tapped her purse and opened the clutch. A pair of worried blue eyes was looking at her.

Alya was tossing and turning in her seat and frantically looking for something everywhere.

“Where is my phone?” Alya cried rather loudly.

“Mlle Cesaire.” The teacher warned.

“The break just finished and my phone is missing.” Alya replied in panic. “I’m sure I had it when the break started, someone stole it in the last five minutes.”

For some reason she looked at Marinette with narrowed eyes and that only made Lila literally glow. Marinette narrowed her eyes back at Alya and shook her head. Alya raised an eyebrow, she obviously did not believe that.

“Oh Alya, your precious phone, it is so important to all of us, how are you going to maintain the Ladyblog without it?” Lila cried from her spot. “How are we all going to know if there is an akuma attack without it. Whoever stole your phone must work with Hawk Moth.”

Ms Bustier wanted to say that Alya was not supposed to work on the Ladyblog during classes, but she just smiled politely and held her breath. Because whoever told Alya not to work on the Ladyblog during classes might also easily be seen as someone who worked with Hawk Moth and Ms Bustier was already akumatized once.

Marinette rolled her eyes. Adrien thanked the person who trained him to keep his cool in public.

“Phones are not supposed to be used during class.” The teacher wanted to avoid a full on investigation and continue with her teaching without mentioning the famous blog.

“Excuse me.” Chloe spoke suddenly. “But this school should treat theft seriously. If the phone was stolen within the last five minutes it could still be found.”

Alya stared at the source of her support. Chloe returned a smile of superiority.

Principal Damocles was called.

The teacher ordered everyone to empty their bags on their desks.

Adrien sighed. Plagg was hiding in his shirt, but spare Camembert was in the bag. Fortunately a cheese triangle did not draw so much attention as Chloe did.

“I am not emptying my bag to this desk in front of all these people, I have no reason to steal Alya’s phone, my daddy can get me much better and more expensive one.” The heiress stated and flipped her pony tail.

Marinette could only hope that Alya would avert her eyes from her for long enough to do something with Tikki. She emptied her school bag, but her small clutch bag remained on the bench, unopened.

Alya was looking at Marinette expectantly.

Marinette finally opened her clutch bag. There was only her phone and few small items, Tikki phased down below the bench. Marinette could not hide that she was relieved.

“What was that?” Alya hissed. She noticed how her seat mate was relieved when she opened her clutch bag.

“I … I’m just glad I don’t have something embarrassing inside.” Marinette stuttered out. Well that was the truth, revealing Tikki was in her bag would be at least embarrassing, it would have been an ultimate disaster.

Well, Alya snickered at that, of course Marinette would be self-conscious about the contents of her purse in front of Adrien. At least that excuse worked perfectly and did not raise further suspicion,

Ivan stared at the pile of books that got extracted from Hannah’s backpack. That girl had this and last years history book, a huge French dictionary and a pile of notebooks. If the literature teacher did not let her use the web engine, the girl took the most exhaustive dictionary she could find in the library.

The teacher climbed up through the passage in the middle, between the benches and looked left and right. Alya’s phone was nowhere to be found. She stopped by Lila with an intention to just turn around.

“You know, the short break is sufficient for students to go to the locker rooms.” She suggested with feigned innocence.

“Plagg.” Adrien whispered to his shirt. “You know which locker is Marinette’s and which one is Hannah’s?”

Plagg patted his chest and muttered. “Might as well check your own.”

“Thank you Plagg, you can leave mine for the end. And you have permission to remove the embarrassing amount of Camembert I have stashed there.” The boy then fully accidentally dropped all his items on the floor and crouched all the way down to pick them up. To his surprise, Plagg did not go straight down to phase to the floor, but towards Marinette. That caused temporary panic, until the boy noticed that Marinette, Nino and Hannah were all helping him collect his things. It was Hannah who picked up the cheese triangle, she simply shrugged and put it in his bag.

Plagg went straight to Tikki.

“We are on a mission, Sugarcube.” Plagg pulled the tiny red bug down and they both phased through the floor.

“We are going to get into trouble.” Tikki whispered.

“My chosen sent me on a mission and you are going to help me.” Plagg replied sassily. “We are going to search the locker of your chosen and that new girl because he thinks the Alya’s phone must be there.”

“Oh, I knew that Lila was up to something.” Tikki was now pulling Plagg towards the locker room.

The two of them floated into the locker room.

“First your chosen, she was the target the last time.” Plagg phased inside the locker.

“Oh hoh hoh.” Plagg laughed excitedly at his discoveries.

“Millions of years old and you’d think he knew about privacy.” Tikki muttered and phased into the locker after him.

“Oh, my, look at what we have here.” Plagg gloated.

“We are looking for a phone Plagg.” Tikki warned.

“Oh, come on Sugarcube, we can do some sightseeing.” The tiny black cat was phasing through stuff in Marinette’s locker to escape the other kwami’s wrath.

“We have no time for that, now I see you checked the lower portion, there is nothing up here, let’s go and find the other locker.” Tikki chided.

“Too bad, I’ll have to escape once more to check that nice box in the bottom.” Plagg snickered and phased out from the locker.

Tikki followed quickly. It took them few failed attempts until they located Hannah’s locker.

“I feel drawn to inspect the upper parts.” Plagg snickered to Tikki once they were both fully phased into the locker.

“I assume her lunch box is there and there is some cheese inside.” Tikki put her tiny hands to her hips.

Plagg grinned.

“No stealing food from Hannah!” Tikki warned.

They searched the rest of the locker and did not find the phone.

“I was right.” Plagg grinned. “She did put it into the locker of my chosen.”

“No Plagg.” Tikki replied. “I think you were right and there is one place we did not look into.” She looked at Plagg with her large blue eyes and then towards a box that held Hannah’s lunch.

They both tried to pull the lid up but it held to the box too tightly.

“We could open it from inside, Sugarcube.” Plagg winked.

“We don’t have much time.” Tikki warned.

Plagg phased into the box and quickly made space for himself by annihilating a cheese strudel inside. “mmm, salty.” Plagg grinned and licked himself.

The phone was sitting inside the box.

“You were right and it is not like we should let Hannah eat the food that girl had touched.” Tikki sighed.

“Okay, now one, two, three.” Tikki counted and the two of them opened the lid to the box and extracted the phone. Plagg floated with the phone in his paws while Tikki unlocked the locker.

They heard footsteps and voices and soon the door to the locker room were opening.

Plagg dropped the phone in the middle of the room and returned to help Tikki close the locker door. Then they both phased down and hid below the locker. The phone clattered to the other side and ended up almost entirely under a locker on the other side.

Marinette was a dead (wo)man walking. She was sure that Lila framed her again and she used Alya’s phone this time. That would definitely destroy their friendship. The fact that Alya knew Marinette stole phones before could not help her at all. Perhaps she could invent some quick excuse and admit she stole the phone for a joke or to test the school reaction on a report about the stolen property or ...

Lila did not say anything but she was talking to principal Damocles and stopped right in front of Hannah’s locker. But the man did not follow her lead entirely and stopped a few lockers away. Marinette stood right next to him. She might as well be the first one to open her locker and show the contents, they would find the phone and then the rest of her class would be saved from the humiliation of their lockers getting searched.

Hannah was right by her side. She was concerned because someone apparently stole Alya’s phone and that was not good. She knew that she had not stolen it, she had nothing to worry about.

“So, who wants to be the first to have their lockers searched?” Principal Damocles asked sternly.

“Well, why don’t you start with the two students who are the first in line.” Lila fluttered her eyelashes. Of course she knew in which locker she stashed the phone, but the opportunity to humiliate Marinette by having her locker searched was just too tempting.

“But the two of them have not even been to the locker room this morning, they were in class the whole time.” Adrien complained.

“I clearly remember Marinette mentioned they were in the locker room before they arrived to the class.” Lila smiled wickedly.

“But Alya, you said the phone got stolen during the break.” Adrien turned to the other classmate.

Alya was still angry at Adrien because of the argument they just had. Marinette was eerily quiet and completely pale. Adrien knew what he could expect. Hannah looked as happy as always, she obviously did not expect to find Alya’s phone in her locker.

“Well, we won’t find the phone in there, won’t we?” Alya replied to Adrien flatly.

Marinette sighed and approached her locker.

Hannah practically danced to her locker.

Marinette felt her life flash before her eyes while she slowly turned the lock to open it.

Hannah opened it within a second and looked inside.

Marinette was slowly opening the door to her locker. Her resolve to go through with this was slowly crumbling.

“Hey, I could call Alya’s phone and that would help us locate it.” Max proposed. “The search would go much faster.”

“Yes of course, please do that Max.” The teacher accepted eagerly.

“Oh, I think that would be useless, the phone is certainly set to silent.” Lila was almost singing. She definitely wanted Marinette’s locker searched.

“It can’t hurt.” Ms Bustier replied while Max already pressed call button next to the number.

Marinette was standing in front of her opened locker and waited for her verdict.

Hannah still stared the empty and opened lunch box. Lila noticed her stare and grinned wickedly, she did not need to see what was inside, she knew. Everyone was looking at the two girls, Hannah could do nothing to hide the phone now.

To everyone’s amazement, there was noise coming from behind them.

“Is this your phone Alya?” Alix pulled out the phone from under the locker and held it high. “It was just under a locker over here.”

Marinette thanked all the gods she knew (and those included Plagg and Tikki) and shut her locker loudly.

Adrien smiled widely. Inside he was already ordering the finest Camembert that money could buy. The tiny glutton did it. Fortunately, everyone was relieved so his happiness passed unnoticed. Well, not everyone was happy. He saw the expression on Lila’s face, he knew he was right and she planted the phone, he was just not sure whose locker it was.

Then he saw Hannah, she was staring at something in her locker and the boy approached carefully.

“What’s wrong?” Adrien asked quietly.

“My lunch.” She whispered sadly. “It is eaten.” She pointed to the empty plastic box.

Adrien’s face was gloomy. That glutton, he ate the poor girl’s lunch. Well, the tiny god did earn his meal. Adrien was just going to make up for it too.

“I’ll get lunch for you.” Adrien whispered. “Just tell me what would you like to have.”

Hannah looked at him.

“I .. can’t ask for food.” She stuttered out.

“That is okay, I offered, your lunch had been stolen and I’ll get one for you, okay?” The boy smiled. He was grateful that the girl did not scream and ask for another investigation about who stole her lunch. But Hannah was not the type. And he did not want anyone else to do that for her.

Marinette overheard the conversation but she did not join them. Lila was looking at her then at Adrien and Hannah and then back at Marinette with such stare that if looks could kill, all three of them would be dead even if they had nine lives.

Alya was confused, she held the phone in her hands, she felt stupid, she raised an alarm needlessly.

“You probably just dropped it, babe.” Nino was holding her shoulders.

“Okay, let’s go back to the classroom.” The teacher called happily.

Alya was not happy, she just made a fool of herself, the other classmates glared at her because they had to empty their bags in the classroom because she lost her phone. Well, most of them understood her concern, up to a point, it was easy to panic like that, and Alya was dependent on her phone more than the rest of them.

Marinette finally turned away from her locker, she was certain Tikki had something to do with that and she was going to bake macarons this evening, the strawberry macarons, her favourite kind.

Adrien returned the empty lunch box into the locker and Hannah locked it. He wrapped one arm around Hannah and another around Marinette (who blushed although she was through a whole spectrum of emotions in the last few minutes) and the three of them walked back to the classroom together.

The very last person to leave the locker room was Lila. She cursed the damn glutton who stole and ate Hannah’s lunch and removed Alya’s phone in the process, may the damn being be cursed with bad luck for eternity and destroy everything they touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mme Mendeleev in the next chapter.


	28. One on one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tikki gets Plagg back to the classroom. Hannah falls asleep during class. The class struggles with the literature assignment. Mme Mendeleev deals with anonymous complaint, gym class and an akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I am cheating and this is at least two chapters long ... but I promised Mme Mendeleev.

One on one

Plagg and Tikki bumped their fists in their hiding place under the locker.

“Okay, lets phase back to the classroom before we get into trouble.” Tikki whispered.

“Oh no, my chosen promised me I can remove the embarrassing amounts of Camembert from his locker and I intend to do just that.” Plagg retorted.

“No Plagg. We are supposed to stay close to our chosen.” Tikki grabbed his tiny arm and tried to pull him. But Plagg pulled in the opposite direction and she could not phase through things and actually pull him.

“My chosen had clearly instructed me to eat that cheese.” Plagg retorted and pulled towards Adrien’s locker.

“But you just ate all that cheese strudel.” Tikki pulled back.

“And I have to fix the taste with some fine Camembert.” The tiny black cat managed to extract himself from Tikki’s tiny hands.

“You glutton, you are just asking for an excuse to eat more cheese.” Tikki chided with her hands on her hips.

“But Sugarcube, I can’t go against the will of my chosen and he clearly wanted me to save him from the threat of anyone discovering that Camembert.” Plagg teased.

“That danger is long gone, Plagg. You will get caught just like the last time.” Tikki was angry.

“The hallway is full of students returning to the class, we will be seen if we return right now. And since we have nothing better to do, I say we go to the locker of my chosen and have a little feast to celebrate, I believe we earned it.” Plagg said cheerfully and phased into Adrien’s locker.

Tikki rolled her eyes and phased right after him.

There was definitely more than half a wheel of Camembert. Tikki pressed her nose and averted her face away from the cheese to reduce the smell. (The writer actually likes Camembert and it is not so smelly as several other French cheeses that are definitely disgusting.) Plagg annihilated it quickly, as usual. Then he burped and then he decided to rest a little on the top of the circular box.

The tiny goddess of creation did not know if she should be glad or annoyed that Plagg finally went unconscious.

“I wish this was the first time I’m dragging you back to your chosen after you got yourself into a food coma.” Tikki muttered while she unlocked the locker, pulled Plagg out and closed the locker. But that was only the beginning of her troubles.

Tikki contemplated if it was just wiser to leave Plagg in Adrien’s locker and wait for the next short break for the boy to pick him up, because if he sent his kwami on a mission and actually told him to annihilate the cheese there, then that was what the boy should do. If Plagg was telling the truth (which was considerably doubtful since there was cheese involved), if Adrien was reasonable (which he mostly was) and would leave Marinette and Hannah alone to go to the locker room on his own (which was highly improbable at the moment) and if there was no akuma attack. And both Lila and Alya were suitable candidates for Hawk Moth’s butterflies at the moment. She pulled Plagg and floated close to the ceiling and through the windows that were placed just above the door. She hid next to the classroom door.

“If only I could make you phase through that door.” Tikki stared at the closed door. Once the bell inevitably rang, the door was about to be opened, but then they could be noticed and she would have to drag Plagg back to the locker. But then, miraculously, Tikki got lucky and the door opened, Alya ran out and did not even close the door behind her.

Tikki knew that the girl was distressed and might be akumatized.

The teacher called back for the attention, the class faced the blacboard and Tikki quickly passed through the open door just above the floor and hid below the step. She made sure to hide below the bench and drop Plagg into Adrien’s bag, that the boy conveniently kept on the floor to allow easy access to his kwami, and then she phased all the way to Marinette’s purse. She patted the thigh of her chosen through the purse and felt how the tension was released from her chosen’s body. Marinette patted her shoulder bag and raised her hand.

“Ms Buster, as a class president, can I go and see that Alya is okay, this morning was really stressful for her? We do not want her akumatized.” Marinette asked politely.

Of course, Ms Bustier could not deny a request like that.

“Oh I wanted to run just after her, but I wanted you just right by my side, you know in case ....” Marinette whispered to Tikki as soon as she was out from the classroom.

Adrien shared the same concern, he was going to need his kwami soon, he was nervous when he did not find the tiny glutton back in his bag when he returned to the classroom, but the most recent event made him check again, only to find Plagg was in the bag and snored quietly. He released a breath slowly and returned his attention to the teacher. Marinette went after Alya, perhaps he will not need Plagg.

Marinette found Alya in the girl’s toilet.

“I’m fine.” Alya snarled as soon as she saw Marinette.

“No you’re not.” Marinette sighed.

“I made such a fool of myself. Just like you do when you blame everything on Lila.” Alya replied.

Marinette waited patiently for Alya to realize what she just said, she almost laughed to the irony, but then she took Alya’s hand.

“Come on, nobody hates you, Kim was just teasing. And you didn’t make such a big fool of yourself. Let’s go back to the class.” Marinette replied warmly.

“And the way Chloe huffed and ...” Alya continued to describe the reaction of everyone in their class as if everyone’s blink and breath was directed towards her utter humiliation.

“Chloe would huff even if nothing happened, you should not think like that about your classmates. Each of them would have acted similarly in your place.” Marinette tried to console her friend. But the truth was that she had stolen Adrien’s phone and the boy did not make such a fuss about it.

It took Alya a few more moments, her breathing evened, but still got interrupted from time to time when she remembered something else to complain about, Marinette would just squeeze her hand tighter and Alya accepted the situation she found herself in and the two girls returned to the class with smiles on their faces.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Ms Bustier was teaching in quick and monotonous speech. She had lost time in the beginning of the class and she wanted to make up for it because she did not want to be behind with the teaching. The pace at which she was speaking made it impossible for Hannah to follow what the teacher was saying. (Actually, that was probably valid for most of the class after the excitement they have been through). She was working on her homework and was trying to learn in advance for history and literature until late after midnight. She was tired and sleepy and the quick and quiet gentle voice from the teacher was only lulling her to sleep.

She woke up with a thud and light headache when her head hit the desk. Adrien flipped around and saw her. Well, most of the class did. She quickly straightened up and resisted to rub her eyes until the teacher averted her eyes. But Adrien and Nino as well as Ivan all saw her yawn and rub her eyes. She focused on the teacher, she had to try and understand what Ms Bustier was explaining.

They got a chapter to read and an abstract to write about it for homework just before the bell rang.

“Adriekins, what did I hear about that awful accidents that happened on the photo shoot?” The blonde heiress cornered the blonde model and the rest of the class could not help much. It was just that tone and attitude that Chloe always used.

“Well Chloe, everything was fine in the beginning, I was doing solo shoots since the early morning, Vincent said we were doing great and made several excellent photos. My father was rather satisfied with those.” Adrien replied, he was certain about that because his father said nothing about them, and in his condition it meant there was nothing to complain about, which meant they were excellent.

“Oh, but what happened then?” Chloe was loud, but also honestly concerned for her friend.

“I guess some bad luck must have arrived at the photo shoot.” Adrien glanced towards Lila intentionally. “And it all went downhill from there.”

Marinette had to prevent herself to snort at what he just said. She did not miss the way he glanced towards Lila.

“Oh Adriekins, I am so sorry to hear that.” Chloe did not miss just who was Adrien just talking about. She disliked Lila, definitely, especially after the smug liar got to be Gabriel’s muse. She would never understand why Gabriel did not pick her, Chloe, for his muse. She was tall and blonde just like Emilie, she had class and style and loved high fashion.

“And then you got caught in that awful storm. But why did you go to Marinette’s afterwards? Why didn’t you call me? I would have sent a limo to fetch you.” Chloe whined.

“My phone got wet.” Adrien smiled his model smile. “Marinette was close, the girls and Kagami were there too.”

At the mention of Kagami’s name, Chloe’s face fell. She turned towards Marinette and looked at the girl helplessly, they used to share their dislike and jealousy of the Japanese girl, but now Marinette was her friend and she even enabled the pair to spend some time together, more than once. ‘Traitor’ her eyes told Marinette, but the other girl just smiled back warmly. Chloe could not get it, why would Marinette let Adrien spend time with another girl if she really loved him, it was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

During literature, they were partnered with their seat mates to analyse a piece of text for an exercise.

Alya was in a bad mood and kept glaring at Adrien, finally Marinette asked her again what was wrong, because this was not about the phone.

“I like you girl, but he abandoned Lila in that condition to run to you.” Alya spat out. She was still upset about her phone incident, but could not admit to that.

“Kagami was there too, and Luka, and the whole class, even you, he did not come for me.” Marinette replied gently. Besides, she knew well that his goal was to run away from Lila and he only went to her home because Luka brought him there. But her heart fluttered anyway, her eyes fell on the blonde mop of hair before her.

However, the rant made Alya calm down a bit and she was able to do some actual work.

They continued with the literature task, it was an exercise on how much of a few hundred year old text they could understand because the language had changed. They were expected to notice the old words and look for the meaning if they did not understand.

“For me this is like they translated every third word into Chinese.” Ivan muttered.

Hannah nodded as she stared at the text. She wanted to cry. Then she quietly underlined the words she understood, the individual words, there were less than half. Then Ivan explained her a few words that were still used in the modern French and they underlined those too and reached about one half of the text. After that they started to look for the meaning of the remaining words. Hannah was quick to find an explanation, but the explanation was another French word or a piece of text. Fortunately Ivan was good in that part and wrote down the translation into the modern French. They were just about finished with that part when the bell rang. They turned in their assignment and it was the time for a lunch break.

The weather was clear and sunny. Adrien messaged Nathalie earlier and asked for an extra portion of lunch for Hannah, he was allowed to take his lunch with his friends but the lunch box was about to be delivered to him. Well that day he got two boxes, and one of them was clearly labelled as the lunch for Hannah while the other was labelled that it was for him. He was rather confused after they opened the boxes and discovered that contents were identical.

Nino had chosen to avoid the cafeteria that day and more of Lila and Alya drama, he was not in the mood for that any more and Marinette discovered that her father packed a rather generous amount of pastries that morning so the four of them found a bench to sit on and shared their food. It was a friendly silence between friends until it started to feel awkward since at least three of them wanted to avoid a subject that was constantly on their minds.

“I did bad in literature.” Hannah admitted. She lost her appetite.

“That is okay. I would do bad too if there was no Adrien.” Nino replied and bit into a sandwich.

Marinette was quiet, she was useless for the same reason, well, Alya too, but slightly different …

“We will just get a different assignment for homework tomorrow if we did bad, don’t worry.” Adrien smiled. “I can help you all once we get it. One lunch break in the library.”

“If your father let’s you stay for lunch breaks after yesterday.” Nino sighed. He was certain that his best bro was going to be grounded, but by some small miracle that did not happen yet, because the old man was more concerned for the working hours and the props than the whereabouts of his own son, while his bodyguard and Nathalie did not bother to tell the man what he did not ask. That was understandable, they would both also get a portion of Gabriel’s wrath.

After the pastries were finished, Adrien managed to persuade Hannah to eat the lunch prepared in the Agreste mansion. The girl finally accepted, but decided to share it with Marinette because Adrien was sharing with Nino.

“Did you fall asleep during history this morning?” Adrien asked Hannah.

She looked at all three faces, Nino had a knowing look, Marinette was surprised, because she wasn’t there, she was with Alya when it happened.

Hannah nodded.

“How much did you get to sleep?” Marinette asked. Hannah slept for few hours yesterday afternoon, she should not have been tired.

“Four hours.” Hannah admitted.

“What did you do, watch films with your brothers?” Nino inquired.

“No.” Hannah shook her head. “Just homework, housework, cleaning, cooking, lunch for today.”

“What about your mother?” Marinette asked quietly.

“She can’t really, after her shift, too tired.” Hannah stammered out.

Then the trio bantered about different films and video games and music and Hannah followed them carefully as she tried to pick up the pieced of conversation. Nino caught her repeating different expressions after them.

“Why are you doing that?” Nino motioned towards Adrien who was the last to speak.

“I … “ Hannah turned to Marinette and then to Adrien as if she wanted their approval to spill out her secret. They both nodded. “I’m still learning French.” She smiled.

Nino gaped.

“But you speak French?” The boy felt little awkward, he expected he would have noticed by then.

“Not much.” She fiddled with her phrase book, then she opened it on a certain page. She was looking for something to say.

“That is okay, she is getting a tutor this afternoon if they have someone available.” Marinette smiled.

“There is one and she is getting me this afternoon after the gym class.” Adrien beamed. “I explained to Nathalie that it is sort of my duty as an excellent student. She bought it.”

“But what about your brothers?” Marinette checked the time. Well, she knew that Adrien and her sort of adopted Hannah, but she wanted to spend more time with the boy too. Bad girl Marinette, Adrien was with Kagami, or at least she was supposed to think that way, she was not even sure after yesterday. And he only took upon himself to tutor Hannah because Marinette didn’t due to her duties as Ladybug.

“Papa can fetch them today.” Hannah smiled. “They are both home.”

“Adrien is your tutor.” Nino announced to Hannah who smiled widely to all three.

“We should better go to the library to verify nobody messed up with your plans.” Marinette warned quietly.

One brief talk with the librarian and it was settled. They would do the tutoring sessions during lunch break on Mondays if possible, otherwise after the afternoon classes on the same day. A small booth was booked for them.

After the lunch break, they had science. This was it for Lila, finally Hannah was going to answer to the complaint Lila placed anonymously about the nudity during chemistry class. Well, this was supposed to be physics, but the teacher was the same. Mme Mendeleev would not let Lila wait for few more days to get her plan in motion, wouldn’t she?

Mme Mendeleev entered the classroom with her head high. The students were eerily quiet.

“There was an anonymous complaint about nudity in your last chemistry class.” Mme Mendeleev announced solemnly. Lila glowed with a sly smile on her face. “Since the injured student did exactly what was required by the safety procedures, this shows that someone among you is not familiar with the proper security measures in the chemistry lab. Since the complaint was anonymous, as the complainer was not brave enough to sign it. All of you will have to fill in the exam that you will find on your school accounts. You can learn about the emergency procedures on the school web page in case you forgotten them. The students who do not pass the test will have to take additional courses and can’t participate in regular lab work until they pass the test. This does not excuse you from the same work, you will have to complete the experiments during additional classes before this semester is finished. Understood? Fine, and now we can all proceed with physics.”

Needless to say, nobody was happy with that prospect. The teacher was loud, clear and too fast.

Hannah understood they were taking a test and noted what and where to find it. The instructions – web page. But the rest was a blur. She assumed it was related to the incident when she got injured. Of course the teacher would require everyone to take a test on security measures in the chemistry lab after such incident, it made sense.

Marinette felt cold sweat go down her spine. Alya groaned at the additional test. Nino and Adrien shared a look. Kim swore, not even under his breath, Max tried to calm him down. Alix was ready to kill the anonymous guy or girl, her first suspect was Chloe, but that girl never did anything anonymously, she could not even hide that she was a superhero.

Chloe realized she could not get out of this one, it was her accident that lead to the nudity. She even felt a little bad about what she had done once she realized what the consequences might have been. Well, it was an online exam, she could have Sabrina do that for her. But then she thought again. Because she was obnoxious but not actually stupid. Hannah could have had permanent scars left on her skin if she did not do what she did. Chloe did not want permanent scars on her skin, perhaps it was time for her to learn. She was so proud of herself.

And the gym class.

Lila insisted on being paired up with Adrien, although the teacher asked them to find a partner of the same size. Then the teacher sighed.

“Perhaps it will be easier for you after I explain you the deal. You are going to throw this heavy ball at your partner and they are expected to catch it without dropping it to the floor. If they drop the ball, the point goes to you, if they don’t, the point goes to them.” The teacher explained.

Adrien gave Lila such wicked grin that the girl developed arthritis, tinnitus and probably even pain in her ass within a time frame of several seconds.

Adrien and Nino, Ivan and Kim, Rose and Mylenne, Juleka and Nathaniel, with some huffing and several glares Alya and Chloe, Marinette and Sabrina, finally the teacher let Max, Alix and Hannah to form a triangle.

Some pairs were passing the ball in a friendly manner, annoyingly friendly if you asked the teacher, Juleka and Nathaniel kept dodging the ball that the other threw and the teacher was so annoyed that he even did not look in their direction after he warned them once that was not the point of the exercise.

The boys took it more competitively from the start. There were uufs and oohs from the boy that caught the ball.

The trio was taking it easy. Alix was competitive, but Max and Hannah did not look like a challenge at all.

Lila glared from her seat at the bench. She could have been paired with Hannah, she could destroy the girl with a ball or feign to be injured by her, or both. But she lost her opportunity. Hannah threw the ball to Alix who caught it with ease. Yeah, that was really a wasted opportunity.

The teacher made a full round around the gym and all the pairs before he sat down on the bench beside Lila and asked her to repeat all her maladies because he insisted to put them on the school log.

“Oh, but I don’t want it in my school medical records, I would be so ashamed if all my illnesses became common knowledge.” Lila whined.

“Mlle Rossi, I assure you that your medical records are strictly confidential and can be accessed only by your teachers and only on a need to know basis.” The teacher explained. “There are no records of you being ill in your data so unless you give me an excuse, I’m afraid I will have to ask you to join the exercise or mark that you refuse to do it. So what shall it be?”

That was exactly what she needed. Her second chance.

“You know, I think I could play against Hannah.” She offered.

“But she is the smallest in your class, wouldn’t you rather take ...” The teacher started to speak.

“No” Lila cut him off abruptly. There was no way for her to accept Alix or Max.

Lila was barely able to pick up the ball from the floor.

Hannah was beaming at Lila. Her idol, that fantastic girl who took her time to work for charities had picked her for her partner.

Adrien was alarmed as soon as he noticed that Lila was up from her bench. Marinette was too far and with her back turned to see what was going on. The teacher observed the two girls carefully due to Lila’s supposed injuries and Hannah considerably smaller size.

Lila threw the ball with all her might. It flew in a high and curved line.

Hannah had to jump to catch it, she lost her balance and rolled back down on the gym mat with the heavy ball in her lap.

“It didn’t touch the floor.” The teacher announced with a thumbs up. He was ready to turn away, but he remembered Lila complained about her conditions, so he decided to pay more attention and see for himself.

Hannah grinned for the won point. She got off from the floor. She wanted to impress her classmate with her strength. Because Lila used all her strength, she was going to give it all she had. With a few steps forward to catch some momentum she threw the ball in a straight line towards Lila. Hannah pushed it so hard that she passed all her momentum to the ball.

Lila instantly stepped to the side, there was no way for her to even attempt catching that. But she was slow and the ball did brush her shoulder on the way.

The ball hit some equipment in the back and produced a lot of noise.

Lila screamed and held her wrist.

Everyone stopped the exercise and there was a complete silence.

“Thank you for trying, but I think we should go through your medical conditions as I first asked you to.” The teacher lead Lila away from the floor to the bench on the side.

“She injured me!” Lila whined. She motioned towards the girl who barely reached her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry Lila.” Hannah apologized. “I’m sorry.” She repeated. If only she could remember all those phrases people used to ask for forgiveness. Her brain went blank. She did not want to hurt Lila, but she never did anything half heartedly, gym class included.

“The ball barely touched your shoulder and you are holding your wrist.” Adrien cut in.

“That is the way that injury works Adrien. She did it on purpose. She threw the ball at me purposefully with an intention to hit me” Lila whined.

“And that is exactly what this exercise is about. Good job.” The teacher told Hannah. “Now, Mlle Rossi, as I explained in the beginning, you are expected to catch the ball or evade it.” The teacher continued calmly.

“I am filing a complaint.” Lila replied with a few sobs just for good measure.

The gym class teacher had seen his share of injuries and crying. He was immune to none and he wanted to avoid being responsible for a student’s injury. He thought about it a little. He could not really stop it.

“Fine.” The teacher replied. The exercise was in the school curriculum, his hands were clean.

“And you will have to go to the school principal with this one.” Lila continued.

“Fine.” The teacher was leading Lila away to sit on the bench.

Lila whined and whimpered and cried the whole time, she felt all the eyes were on her and she enjoyed the attention. The teacher instructed the class to resume the exercise while he sat beside Lila. Most of the class were watching Lila. Adrien was near Hannah who started to cry quietly. She hurt her classmate and felt sad about it. Marinette narrowed her eyes towards Lila, she noticed Hannah was distressed, but soon half of the class was around the little girl and explained she did nothing wrong and she should just resume the exercise.

Alya was confused. Her and Chloe exchanged several nasty shots, but the heiress was probably too proud to complain about the difficult ones. Hannah was tiny but fierce, just like Alix was, therefore she could have produced a strong hit just as the noise had proven it. Lila was crying about her injury, but Hannah was crying because she was sorry. Alya concluded Hannah should have been more careful with Lila, after all, the whole class knew about Lila’s countless maladies.

Alix offered the ball to Hannah and asked her to throw it back. After a few attempts where Alix had no problems catching it, the girl finally let go and resumed to play and smile.

“So about your injuries before this class.” The teacher asked patiently.

“There were no injuries before the class, she hurt me.” Lila whined.

“Even if she did, it was part of the exercise.” The man spoke quietly and calmly.

Lila cried and whined until the teacher had to leave the bench and intervene because Kim and Ivan became too rough for anyone around them. Then he gave the pairs and the trio a different task, when he finished with explanations and a round trip through the gym to check on the execution, he turned back to the bench to continue his ordeal with Lila. But the bench was empty. Lila was gone.

The gym teacher was explaining the last exercise for the day when a warning bell announced there was an akuma on the school premisses. Everyone ran to the locker rooms. But Adrien knew better, he hid Plagg in his towel and quickly found a place to transform.

“I am the Dark Owl and I will protect my dear students from the bullies and awful exercises they have to suffer through because of their horrid teachers.” Dark Owl, in other circumstances known as principal Damocles, proclaimed.

Chat quickly hid. The last time the akuma was in the man’s computer, not on him. The students have already hidden so it would be the best if he just vaulted to the principal’s office and used cataclysm on his computer. If only Ladybug was there to cleanse the butterfly.

Then he noticed two girls who were hidden from the akuma, but he could easily see them. Hannah and Marinette were in their clothes for the gym, Hannah crawled expertly in the direction of the locker rooms while Marinette, apparently, had a different idea and wanted to go in the opposite direction, but Hannah somehow dragged the larger girl along.

Well, Ladybug was not yet there and he had two classmates to save.

“Hi Princess, hi Hannah.” He greeted as he tried to collect both girls.

“Hi Chat, why don’t you take Hannah to safety, I can hide here.” Marinette simply crouched next to the wall.

“Hi Chat, please save Marinette, I’m okay.” Hannah continued to crawl away.

Marinette was relieved because Hannah left her alone, now if only Chat went on his way too.

“Listen, I’m fine, why don’t you look for Ladybug?” Marinette proposed with a smirk.

“And where are you going to hide?” Chat Noir crossed his arms.

“That toilet, it is much closer than the locker room.” Marinette was already running towards the akuma, but she did enter the girls restroom.

Chat felt his pride hurt because he did not really help either of the civilian girls. He vaulted away, over the rooftop and into the principal’s office. He had time to make one circle around the desk before he noticed Ladybug approaching the window. He called on his power and destroyed the computer. Ladybug cleansed the butterfly while she was standing on the windowsill.

“Enchante My Lady.” Chat greeted with an exaggerated bow.

“Nice to see you too Chat.” She smiled. The next thing she did was to call on her miraculous ladybug magic.

He felt guilty for wishing that the fight took longer only to spend more time with her. She smiled her wide smile that lit up the room, but said nothing. Finally, he offered his fist and she bumped it.

“We are getting better at this.” Chat spoke in a tone as if he actually regretted that.

“Or Hawk Moth is getting desperate.” Ladybug replied.

“We almost lost the fight and revealed our identities the last time we fought Dark Owl.” Chat shrugged.

“Yes, but he akumatized the same person using the same object. We knew what we needed to do.” Ladybug replied. “We just got lucky.”

Chat grinned, she made a pun and did not even realize that.

“I still think that we make a purrety pawesome ...” And then he stopped because he wanted to say couple, but he knew he shouldn’t, he should use some other word, but for the life of him he could not think of any that he would actually want to use for the two of them.

“Friends.” Ladybug smiled gently.

“Furrends.” Chat replied with a smirk.

Ladybug rolled her eyes.

Chat’s ring sounded a warning.

They both remembered that they should detransform and change their clothes and had things to do and places to be.

“Well, bug out.” Ladybug reluctantly launched her yoyo and left through the window.

Chat followed her with goofy smile and gentle eyes. Then he decided to walk out from the office through the door. He found a janitor’s closet and detransformed.

Adrien discovered he loved tutoring Hannah, she was a grateful student who did her best to repeat the words and the phrases exactly like she was told. Her accent and pronunciation of the text she was reading was awful, but he helped her correct herself and saw progress even in their first hour.

On his way home, Adrien wondered if he could teach Hannah some puns after she got the basics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	29. Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien gets home from school, has a talk with Gabriel. Alya is ... Alya. Marinette gets a visit in the bakery and a talk. Chat spies on his classmates. It might seem like nothing new, but ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while. I live in film full of cliches. First my father got injured. Then lock down. Then home schooling. Then an earthquake. Then a major cold front and a storm. Then ... what could possibly be next, dinosaurs, or a Godzilla?   
> I used to write on my commute to work or while I had some dull time while testing. There is no commute and the dull times are used to fix the school work. I was writing, but the pace is much slower now.

After the tutoring session, Adrien was sitting in his car and thinking of different puns he could teach Hannah. He observed his driver and listened to his satisfied grunts whenever he thought of particularly witty ones, because Adrien was not only thinking about puns, he was trying them out loud. Both of them were in rather good mood when they passed the gates leading to the Agreste mansion. The good mood deflated sharply after they saw Nathalie’s stern face at the house entrance.

“Your father wishes to speak to you.” Nathalie informed Adrien.

“Thank you Nathalie.” Adrien sighed. He often felt happy when he heard those words, because his father finally found time to speak to him, because his father wished to speak to his son, because his father found the time in his busy schedule. He would get elated and get that additional merry spring in his step to reach his father’s office with a happy face and raised spirits. However, once he was there, his father’s stern demeanour and harsh words would suck all the happiness out of the boy.

This time, he knew what to expect. His father probably got together all the accounts of the yesterday’s events and knew the boy was absent for at least a few hours more than he could justify. Adrien walked to his father’s office and dragged his feet.

“Hello father” Adrien greeted after Nathalie lead the boy to his father’s office and announced him.

“Hello Adrien.” Gabriel greeted without lifting his eyes away from the computer screen. He was particularly focused on some detail on in the corner and zoomed in on the item. Then he frowned.

“Another one ruined.” The man commented.

Adrien stood there and waited patiently to hear what was going to be his destiny. He expected to be punished, he intentionally ruined the photo shoot with Lila on Sunday. And then he escaped with Luka to Marinette’s where he fell asleep while watching a film with Kagami and Marinette.

“I want to hear your account of the events this Sunday.” Gabriel informed his son while he studied the next picture on his screen.

“Lila had several accidents, then the storm started, I hid away from the storm with Kagami.” Adrien gave the briefest version yet, even shorter account of the events than he described on Sunday evening to Nathalie. His father never spared him a glance.

“So you hid from the storm with Mlle Tsurugi.” Gabriel pondered with a strange lilt in his otherwise cold voice.

“Yes father.” Adrien confirmed.

“Given the circumstances, that was probably a good decision, although I would prefer if you looked for your bodyguard on such occasions.” Gabriel replied coldly. But the words gave Adrien hope that he was not going to be punished for his absence. Gabriel on the other hand was too busy with being Hawk Moth to notice his son was not actually brought home instantly after the storm had started.

“Yes father, I would have phoned him, but my phone got wet.” Adrien replied calmly.

“Yes, I was made aware of that.” Gabriel replied while he angrily noted one more piece of garment was ruined and flipped to the next image on his screen.

Adrien understood his father was not really angry with him.

“Your new phone is waiting for you at your desk.” Nathalie informed.

“But we put my old phone into rice. It is working now.” Adrien frowned.

“The new phone is expected to work better in moist conditions.” Nathalie answered flatly.

“Ruined, ruined, all the girl’s specimens were ruined, and several for boys, including a few you modelled. And the photos you did solo were acceptable.” Gabriel snarled at the screen. Nathalie made notes on her tablet.

“We might have the other set of specimens ready sir.” Nathalie mentioned offhandedly.

Adrien’s heart sunk. That meant another photo shoot with Lila. His father noticed the change in the boy’s attitude without actually looking at him. He stopped and looked at the screen. Why was his son bothered by the fact that they could resume the photo shoot so soon?

Adrien schooled himself back to neutral expression in an instant, but he knew his father had noticed. He was still fiddling with his phone.

“You do not need to change your phone today if this one is working, but I would advise you to do that soon.” Nathalie continued the conversation she had with Adrien. That made Gabriel shift his attention away from Adrien’s most recent change.

“Could you check that Nathalie, we could schedule another photo shoot for tomorrow. Adrien would be pulled from school along with Lila.” Gabriel instructed.

Adrien felt his heartbeat raise and he stretched his fingers not to clench them into fists.

“They can be ready for Adrien by tomorrow. The set needs a few alterations for the photo shoot.” Nathalie informed her boss. “But the girl’s spare outfits were done for a person much taller than Lila, it was not for the photo shoot, they can’t get adjusted, they need to make new ones.”

Adrien perked up.

Gabriel sighed.

“Perhaps we could take a model of the right height, my friend Juleka ...?” Adrien proposed timidly and hoped for the best.

“That is unacceptable, Lila has been announced as my muse! How could anyone produce garments in a wrong size?” Gabriel snarled. “Go to your room Adrien and practice piano or Chinese or whatever you have to do, I will talk to you later about work.”

Adrien dismissed himself towards his room.

Alya was certain her phone was stolen. She had it right there when the short break started. That fact kept digging in the back of her mind. But she had no quiet time to think about what happened. Lila kept picking her brain with different stories, requests and ideas. Nino left her alone which was both a blessing and a curse because she wanted him to listen to her rant about the phone. She finally got home

“Hey sis, my phone got damaged today in the gym, it is supposed to be unbreakable, can I borrow your phone to complain about it?” Nora did not bother to wait for an answer but simply pulled the phone from the back pocket of Alya’s trousers and threw herself on the couch as she browsed for the number. Alya just stood there, dumbstruck. The phone must have been in her back pocket, yeah she just checked for an akuma alert as soon as the bell rang and put it there to rant about Lila to Adrien because she was reminded of the last night’s akuma. Someone must have taken it from her pocket and took it to the locker room, and why? Nora was talking on the phone and explained to the guy in her own choice of words what happened to the indestructible phone. But nobody went to the locker room during the break, everyone stayed in the class, she would have noticed, she was right there, her seat is so close by the door. She could not remember anyone walked pass her and got in and out. But maybe she was just a little bit too invested in her argument with Adrien, and poor Lila was so distressed. She finally got her phone back and phoned Nino.

“Hey Nino, did you notice someone went to the locker room during the short break?” Alya asked bluntly.

“Hey Alya, as far as I remember, the only persons who left the classroom were the teacher and Lila. Is this about the phone? Please, Just let it go babe. It probably dropped from your back pocket while you were in the locker room.” Nino replied.

“Someone took it, I’m telling you! And you’re right, Lila did leave the classroom. Perhaps she took it?” Alya was not entirely aware of the facts that came out from her mouth.

“Why would Lila take your phone?” Nino asked slowly, it made no sense to him. It was meaningless, it was not even a prank.

“I don’t know.” Alya whined back. “If she asked me for it, I would have borrowed her the phone.” There, she said it herself, Nino hoped she would drop it.

“Exactly, she had no reason to steal it.” Nino was becoming slightly tired of it, he knew Lila was not as nice and wonderful as he first thought, and the yesterday’s actions of Marinette, Adrien, Luka and Kagami were a bit exaggerated from his point of view, but that was just a teenage prank.

“Someone took my phone and left it in the locker room and the only possible suspect is Lila.” Alya whined.

“Babe, you sound slightly paranoid here, that investigative journalism got into your head. Why don’t you chill down, listen to this new playlist I have and get some rest?” Nino sounded totally relaxed, but Alya was boiling. Either Nino was hiding something or Lila took her phone. Perhaps it was something related to Adrien, she was angry at his best bro and it was about Lila. Her gut was telling her so. But what was it?

“What happened between Adrien and Lila on the photo shoot, Nino?” Alya demanded.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t there, something went wrong and then rain started.” Nino brushed her off.

She was asking questions to which Nino mostly answered in terms how Adrien does not like Lila until he invented an excuse and cut the call. Well, he did not invent the excuse, Chris really wanted to play video games with him.

Marinette was helping her parents in the bakery after she got home from school. Her parents were exhausted after the catering on Sunday and then running the bakery on Monday. Her father was finishing up a cake and she was filling up the trays and putting them into the oven and then bringing the hot pastries to the shop and filling the display. Her parents were silent so she was too. After all the events of the day, she needed some quiet time to think. She needed to tell Hannah that Lila planted the phone in her locker. But how was she supposed to know that? What kind of a story was she supposed to invent and make it believable? She had no idea.

The cake was ready and picked up. Marinette packed up all the boxes for Luka to deliver. Tom was tired and went upstairs. Sabine stayed for a while to man the counter. There were still customers coming in after a busy day. Marinette was filling up the orders while her mother only charged the amounts. And that worked perfectly to reduce the crowds in the shop.

“I have a special delivery for you Marinette.” Luka greeted and stood to the side. Behind him, there was Kagami, taking off her bicycle helmet.

“Hi Kagami! Hi Luka!” Marinette smiled.

“Hi Marinette, Hi Mme Cheng, Luka brought me over on his bicycle.” Kagami smiled awkwardly.

“Hello Kagami.” Sabine smiled tiredly.

Marinette brought the packages for Luka and Sabine signed off his delivery list. Luka went on his way, but Kagami stayed behind. There was nobody else in the shop but the three of them when Sabine excused herself and asked Marinette to call her if she needed help. The woman sensed that the two girls might prefer to talk without an adult present, and she was tired, a few minutes upstairs would not hurt anyone, right?

“My mother is using the car for business this afternoon so I took a walk and run into Luka.” Kagami smirked. Marinette looked surprised, did the girl just walk away from her home on her own? And was her meeting Luka purely accidental?

“I’m happy you got here.” Marinette smiled while her head was full of questions. Kagami had that same slightly naughty expression on her face that she had when she escaped the fencing lesson with Adrien and they both got onto Liberty.

“You can help me with running the bakery.” Marinette smirked back and offered her a box and a pair of gloves.

Kagami put the rubber gloves on without hesitation and took the box in her hands.

“What should I pack?” Kagami asked full of determination.

“Uh, here is a list of boxes to be filled and packed and made ready for delivery.” Marinette frowned at a sheet of paper her mother prepared.

Kagami looked at the same sheet. She had no idea what all those words meant. They named different kinds of pastries that were ordered. She wrote the address on the label of the box and then looked at Marinette.

“What are eclairs?” Kagami asked bluntly while she literally stood in front of a box full of the same treat.

Marinette stared at the girl.

Kagami stared back.

Marinette started to laugh and pointed to the same box.

Then Kagami looked at the box.

Suddenly she realized she did encounter the same treat before, but she forgot the word used to describe it.

Marinette showed her how to fill the box, what can go in the box together and what had to be packed separately.

They laughed, they filled the boxes and they served more than a few customers who appeared at the shop to grab something for dinner. Kagami was quick to pick up on how to deal with the register while Marinette was packing the order.

“That’s it, all the delivery boxes are packed and Luka is not even back here.” Marinette announced as she was checking the list and the boxes.

Kagami just charged the last customer and the two girls were alone in the bakery.

“Do you always have this much work?” Kagami asked bluntly.

“Maman and papa are usually here, at least one of them, but they are really exhausted today.” Marinette shrugged.

Kagami processed the information for a while.

“But I helped you today.” Kagami replied seriously.

“Yes you have.” Marinette replied playfully. “And you earned yourself a treat.” Marinette pulled out the box where she put several slightly damaged specimens. “What would you like?”

Kagami looked into the box, there were several pastries inside. She took one small quiche while Marinette took two cookies. She quickly smuggled one cookie into her shoulder bag while Kagami’s attention was on the quiche.

“This is really tasty.” Kagami muttered between two bites. Marinette smiled.

“Do you have any of those … eclairs?” Kagami asked after she finished with the quiche.

Marinette peeked into the box. “Not among the damaged ones but ...” She approached the box with eclairs. “This one looks like it is not really for sale.” Marinette intentionally pressed a finger into one.

“Oh, but it is only one. What would you have?” Kagami accepted the eclair. Marinette walked over to the macarons. There were plenty left so she took one.

“I guess this one is slightly tilted, don’t you think?” Marinette turned around a perfect pink macaron. The girl touched the cookies as if they were making a toast and started to eat.

But then, Kagami became serious. The two girls were finally alone. Marinette flipped the sign to closed and started to pack the box with left over pastries to take to Hannah.

“Marinette.” Kagami started to speak. “I understand you now.” She waited until the sign turned to closed, but she was not about to hesitate any longer.

Marinette lifted her eyes towards the girl with a puzzled expression on her face.

“What do you understand about me now?” She asked after a short silence.

“Well, about Adrien and Luka.” Kagami continued and smiled awkwardly. “I do not want to hurt you, Marinette. I would never hurt you. You are my first friend. Well, my first friend after Adrien, apparently.” Kagami continued and took hold of Marinette’s hand. Marinette glanced towards their joined hands, squeezed back and then looked at Kagami’s face.

“Is he worth fighting for? Against me?” Kagami continued.

“I do not want to fight with you about boys.” Marinette whispered. She had determined the other day that the best way forward for her was to forget about the boys in her life and just go on, one day at a time, while she learned how to be a guardian on top of being Ladybug. She felt fortunate that Hawk Moth did not send a full on attack lately. “I have given up on boys for a while. I have too much going on in my life right now.”

Kagami looked at Marinette once more.

“Luka is a really nice guy.” Kagami smiled. “He is so calm and collected. He played the nicest melody for me today. He said it was a melody he made for you.”

That made Marinette flip her eyes back up.

“I asked him to make a melody for me.” Kagami smiled. “He played me a melody he thought of when he was looking at the two of us on Liberty.” She smiled. “That melody made me feel really special.”

Marinette looked back down at their joined hands. She wanted to pull away. Was this girl betraying Adrien right now? Was Kagami now into Luka? What was going on?

“I just realized that I love all three of you.” Kagami concluded.

Marinette gasped for air and blushed severely.

“Not like that!” Kagami continued. “I love you all as friends.” Well, she was not sure if they were ‘just’ friends. After she spoke with Luka, she understood it was okay to hesitate when you are not sure what you feel. She was so certain she loved Adrien, but now she felt the same about other people, and that was confusing, to say the least. And Kagami was never confused.

Marinette nodded, but she was still red in her face. She knew she loved Adrien, but she also had feelings for Luka and Chat and Kagami and all her friends, but it was different each time, because people were different, or so she thought.

“I did not have friends before, you know.” Kagami continued. Kagami thought of the time when she wanted to kiss the boy. She remembered how he pulled back than, but then she remembered his gentle touches when he took the ice cream off her face when they had it later. She smiled to herself.

“I was brought up … differently. So I liked Adrien a lot. And he gave me that rose. And I thought I was perfect for him and he was perfect for me.” Kagami spoke swiftly, her tone revealed her determination, she was so sure of herself, the way Marinette never was.

Marinette nodded. She couldn’t disagree, in her own eyes, Kagami was far better match for Adrien than Marinette could ever be.

“You are.” Marinette whispered. “You are much better than me.” She whispered. “You have so much more in common.” She took one deep breath to prevent herself from crying. “You make him happy.” She concluded and then she stopped talking. It was too hard to talk.

“He sees me just as his friend, Marinette.” Kagami spoke firmly.

“I can relate to that.” Marinette started to laugh while her eyes wanted to cry desperate tears.

“I know.” Kagami laughed. Suddenly, Marinette hugged the Japanese girl who stiffened first, but then she relaxed and hugged back. That was definitely not something she did on a daily basis, but she could get used to it.

“But I thinks he likes you.” Marinette spoke calmly. “He asked me what to do on a date with you.”

“The ice ring? He asked you? And you helped him and you even went there, with Luka.” Kagami continued. The two girls took more cookies that were left on the bottom of the box and started to nibble.

“I just wanted him to be happy.” Marinette whispered.

“You have done all that for him?” Kagami was surprised.

“Oh you wouldn’t believe.” Marinette laughed, and then she told the story about the scarf and a beret and a box full of gifts. Marinette was laughing about herself. And Kagami joined in with her won laughter from time to time, but when Luka arrived and Marinette called upstairs for one of her parents to check the order, Kagami was all serious and determined.

“You told me you knew she likes Adrien, but she really loves him.” Kagami spoke bluntly.

Luka simply nodded. He looked at Kagami.

“You knew?” Kagami asked.

“She filmed a video message for him where she admitted her feelings for him in front of me.” Luka replied calmly.

“She would do anything for him.” Kagami whispered as she heard Marinette returning to the bakery with one of her parents.

“It goes both ways.” Luka smirked. “Why don’t I give you a ride back home while I take these deliveries.” He offered louder. He had something to tell Kagami, a secret he learned from Adrien.

Sabine signed off the list and went back upstairs. Kagami and Luka were gone and Marinette quickly locked up the bakery. She did a quick clean up and decided she needed some air.

Marinette brought the pastries to Hannah on her own. Hannah’s father looked happy, but exhausted while her mother nervously tried to study from some huge book. Hannah quietly explained that it was for some exam her mother was supposed to take in at least six months time. That was long time in the future, but the book looked rather big. Then Hannah pointed that it was just the first volume. Marinette did not want to disturb the family where apparently all members were students and there was permanent homework and study time for everyone. Well, she still had those macarons to make for Tikki, the tiny goddess admitted where was the phone stored, because that was important piece of information, but she omitted the fact that she had help.

Adrien gratefully accepted Plagg’s excuse for eating Hannah’s lunch. Besides, he was certain the girl would not mind sharing her lunch with his kwami if she knew what the tiny god of destruction did for her. The boy was rather certain she would not mind even if he did nothing for her. She would just try to make friends. Plagg got an order of the finest Camembert money could buy and the boy waited for Nathalie to burst into his room and ask him all about his shopping and eating habits, but that never happened. At least not that evening. Even the dinner was dull, boring and lonely. His father did not call him back to his office to discuss his work neither did Nathalie came to announce changes in his schedule. Well, he hoped that meant no photo shoot the next day.

Adrien was back in his room, he checked his homework. Everything was done but that quiz on safety measures in the lab. He opened the instructions manual first. He skimmed through it quickly, it was rather basic. He memorized quickly which chemicals he was not supposed to wash with water because they reacted, the rest was easily understandable and logical. Then he opened the quiz and clicked on his answers. The result popped up instantly on his screen. He passed. Few answers he got partially wrong were displayed with a comment that he could do that, but another solution was better and safer. Well, there was no grade, just pass or fail and he passed so he did not bother to take the test again.

The boy decided to go to bed. The day was eventful as it was. Plagg was sleeping peacefully on one of the pillows and Adrien snuggled into the other one. He was asleep soon.

Adrien woke up from a nightmare. The first thing he saw was the time, 3:12. It was dark, but his body was shaking. He forgot what the nightmare was about, except that there was Marinette, and Lila and he remembered he felt fear. He tried to close his eyes, but he remembered the locker room, smug look on Lila’s face, then there were scarlet butterflies all over and both Hannah and Marinette got akumatized. He opened his eyes. He was not going to sleep. It was 3:30. Well, if he jumped around the rooftops a bit, cleared his head and saw both girls asleep then he would be able to fall back asleep, right?

Plagg groaned at first, but then he effortlessly swallowed a piece of cheese in one giant bite before Adrien transformed.

Chat Noir was bouncing over the rooftops of a now silent city. The traffic was almost quiet, but the Eiffel Tower as well as other monuments were clearly lit up. He enjoyed the scenery before he landed across the street of a familiar balcony. The lights were out. He expected Marinette was sleeping. He quietly landed on her terrace and saw the girl asleep in her bed. He felt like a stalker so he left quickly. Too quickly to notice that she opened her eyes the next second, only to see the dark catlike creature vault over her rooftop window.

Chat was passing over the rooftop across the street when he noticed that the light in Hannah’s room was on. He landed quietly on the rooftop across the street.

Hannah’s father snored. Her brothers were probably asleep on their beds on the gallery. But Hannah was sitting at a table with a thick book opened in front of her, while her mother paced slowly around the room and talked quickly and quietly. From what Chat could understand she recited facts about some specific medical condition. Hannah’s head leaned on her hand while the elbow of the same arm was on the table, he could not see it very well, but the girl might have been asleep in that position.

“Was that correct?” Maria, Hannah’s mother asked.

Hannah suddenly moved her finger over the text.

“I … I don’t know, I don’t really understand this part.” Hannah replied tiredly.

“Come on, we have until morning, you will go to school then.” Her mother came over and searched through the text. “Um, I forgot this, look.”

Hannah sighed tiredly and nodded.

“Okay. Pick the next one. I have to return the book tomorrow if I want to be able to borrow it again before the exam.” Her mother spoke quickly as she lost her patience.

“Um, okay. The clinical signature of different stages of rheumatoid arthritis?” Hannah flipped the pages until she reached that title and read it out loud. Her mother started to recite quickly.

Chat watched the scene and his tired young classmate. Her head was dropping again, she was tired, she needed her sleep.

“Come on Hannah!” Her mother said louder between two sentences of her describing different stages of the disease.

“Sorry maman.” Hannah apologized quickly.

“Just this night, then I return it and get the next one and you will have your break and you can study for your school, okay?” Marie spoke gently for the first time.

Hannah nodded and squinted her eyes towards the text while her mother continued to describe the illness.

Chat felt his eyelids were getting heavy, the quick and monotonous vice of Maria made him sleepy again. He stirred and got to his feet. There was nothing he could do besides dropping in uninvited to an unsuspecting family and sit beside that book instead of Hannah. He did not want to intrude, nor appear as a stalker. He needed a good excuse to enter and he could not find one save him sitting there on a rooftop across the street for at least twenty minutes. Perhaps even more. He lost the track of time. Finally he vaulted away. He was going to talk to Hannah in the school in the morning. He had to find a way to tell her that Lila planted Alya’s phone in her locker and find out just why Hannah spent her nights learning medicine with her mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all safe and healthy.


	30. Coffee and phone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kids get to school and talk about books, exams, more lies etc. Lila turns Alya around and talks to Damocles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have split this chapter in two ... finally the monster is out.

Coffee

Marinette stirred in her bed to the sound of her alarm clock. She felt refreshed and ready for school. That was a surprise, but then she remembered that there were no akuma’s that night. She did wake up in the middle of the night and check when she thought she saw Chat Noir through her rooftop window, but she probably imagined it, she was not fully awake the moment she saw the shadow passing, and what would the catlike hero do on her rooftop in the deaf hours of the night?

Marinette found Hannah on her way to school. The younger girl was practically sleepwalking. She was holding a cup of coffee in her hands. It was not a plastic disposable cup for take away coffee you can get from a shop, she was holding a ceramic cup, probably from her home.

“What’s this.” Marinette asked after greeting.

Hannah squinted her eyes.

“Coffee?” she asked and took a sip. “Um, yes.”

“Do you normally drink that?” Marinette asked.

“What is normally anyway?” Hannah shrugged. Nothing was normal for her, or everything was, depending how you looked.

Marinette stared at Hannah wide eyed. They were standing below the school steps. She did not even notice Adrien was on the steps next to Nino just a few metres away.

“Very strong coffee.” Hannah said after one sip. “Papa made it for me for school.”

“Why?” Marinette insisted, she was worried for her young classmate.

“Studied with mother all night.” Hannah shrugged and took another sip of her coffee. Marinette was so close she could feel the smell and the scent itself was strong enough to wake her up.

“Hey Hannah, what kept you awake all night?” Adrien greeted nonchalantly while he winked and waved to Marinette who blushed back. The boy played it as a joke although he knew the words he spoke were true. He saw Hannah with her mother in the middle of the night.

“Dude, that coffee is strong.” Nino frowned. Hannah was silent, she enjoyed the effects of the liquid as it made her feel more awake, but she was still too tired to try to explain again.

“She mothered with study … no she studied with mother … but why?” Marinette stuttered the answer for Adrien, but then she insisted on more information from Hannah. She was genuinely worried for her classmate.

“Mother studies for exam. Book is from the library. She returns the first part today and borrows the second part.” Hannah shrugged.

“But you said the exam is more than six months away.” Marinette protested.

Hannah nodded.

“Books are hard to get. She will borrow again before the exam.” Hannah explained but they could hear she was tired. She was not trying to hide anything, she was beyond tired to care if anyone got her at that point. She just wanted them to stop asking her anything so she could sip her coffee. It was the only thing keeping her from falling asleep on her feet.

“So she needs these books for the whole time, but she cant keep them from the library for that long?” Marinette asked if she understood the problem.

Hannah nodded, again, relieved someone was getting her.

Nino was shifting on his feet, he felt awkward, and he could not even tell why.

“Which books?” Adrien asked quickly.

Hannah answered the general title. “Do you have them at your home too?” She asked hopefully, but then she felt guilty. “No, forget about it. Sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m really sorry. Please forget I asked that.” She was terrified that the boy was going to appear at her door with the most expensive books she ever heard of and her parents would be angry, again.

“I doubt you have that in that library of yours, dude.” Nino teased.

“What do you need from the library?” Max asked as he adjusted his glasses.

“Actually, Hannah’s mother needs a book.” Marinette shrugged.

“Tell me what it is. My mother is studying to be an astronaut, I could ask her to get me a pdf.” Max smiled proudly.

Hannah suddenly smiled, her eyes wide and fully awake. “Of course!” She walked away with Max while she was explaining all about the books for her mother’s exam.

“So, any of you dudes passed that lab security test?” Nino asked merely to change the subject.

“Been there, done that.” Adrien shrugged and smirked.

“Um, I got a ‘pass’ although I got a bunch of questions ‘correct but this option is better’.” Marinette spoke to her shoes, suddenly aware of the blonde boy looking at her.

Nino stopped in the school yard just before the entrance to the locker room.

“Well, I failed and if I get that anonymous snitch this dude is not going to be cool.” Nino looked angry and his friends were starting to get worried.

“That is okay, you have time before Thursday. I could help, perhaps.” Adrien offered.

“Nah, thanks dude, the thing is I did not even read the instructions first. Had an argument with Alya. I just wanted to be over with everything and do some gaming with Chris.” Nino answered after a few calming breaths, then he heard Kim on the other side of the school yard and decided to join the boys and leave Adrien and Marinette to deal with their lockers.

In the meantime, Alya was in school early, she greeted Nino but decided to join the other girls in the school yard who were discussing the science lab safety regulations.

“That exam was a joke.” Alix exclaimed. “You have all the answers in the instructions file and there is like one or two wrong answers and the other two would be correct.”

“But I couldn’t select all the right answers.” Juleka muttered.

“Oh.” Rose cooed. “You could just pick one.”

“It wasn’t a multiple answer choice.” Mylenne shook her head. “It was explained on the first slide, before you take the test, along the fact that you have only fifteen minutes to complete.”

“Huh, I panicked.” Juleka muttered and grabbed her upper arm with the other hand.

“That is okay, we can take the test again this afternoon.” Rose chirped.

Alya was silent, she forgot about that science lab test completely, she was so obsessed with the phone theft that there was nothing else on her mind the whole evening. Then she noticed her first suspect approaching.

“Hi girls.” Lila greeted in her usual sly tone. “You wouldn’t believe what I did yesterday ...” And she began one of her tales, the students gathered in a circle. Everyone listened about prince Ali and Lila’s heroics, although nobody had a single comment of praise this time. They just stood there and waited for her to finish out of habit. They were full of their own concerns and resumed talking about schoolwork as soon as Lila was finished.

“So Lila” Alya began talking to the other girl once the two got slightly to the side. “About my phone ...”

Lila put a hand over her mouth to hide her sinister grin and then quickly schooled her face into mock concern.

“Oh Alya!” Lila cried, not so quietly, so at least the girls chatting around could overhear the conversation. “I think you are right, someone did steal your phone and took it to the locker room.”

Alya crossed her arms and expected the girl to admit that she did it.

“I remember it clearly when Hannah was snooping around behind our backs. You know, that girl really knows how to hide in plain sight.” Lila was selling her story and Alya was buying, she first opened her mouth and then unfolded her arms. “She is constantly on her phone and it is such an ancient model it belongs to a museum, while you have this nice new one ...” Alya was thinking, did she remember Hannah there for the argument yesterday? She couldn’t. And the girl was small and seldom drawn attention to her, she could have easily sneaked out and Nino would not notice her. “She probably just hid it in the locker room to pick it up later.” Lila stated.

Lila was proud of herself, she could see on Alya’s face that her little trick had worked perfectly. Then she looked around to see other faces.

Alix frowned, she thought the whole phone loss/theft was resolved yesterday and why would they bother with that again, the phone was in plain sight, it was not even hidden. Besides, she liked that new girl, she was shorter than Alix so Kim stopped inventing demeaning nicknames related to her height. And Hannah was really giving all she had in the gym class, Alix appreciated the effort. But Lila saw her frown and was satisfied with the effect.

Juleka and Rose looked very concerned when they glanced towards Lila. Both of them failed the science lab exam, they were discussing the strategy of when and where and how to tackle it again and both of them were actually studying the material provided by the school on the lab safety while Lila was talking. So their concern had nothing to do with Lila’s story, they both actually missed the whole thing as they started to ignore the conversation as soon as Alya mentioned her phone.

Chloe and Sabrina were too busy giving and taking orders to really pay attention to what Lila was talking with Alya. At the moment Lila checked on them, Chloe was examining her nails and Sabrina was checking something on her phone.

Mylenne stared at Lila wide eyed, she was the only one who listened to the whole story. She, for one, was fairly certain that Hannah never left her spot. Mostly because if Hannah ever left her place next to Ivan during a short break, Mylenne would change seats just to join him for a minute. But she said nothing, she turned away and walked straight towards Ivan who was with the boys.

Kim was complaining about how he wasted whole fifteen minutes on the lab safety test before his swimming training yesterday, only to fail it.

“I mean, guys, who would ever complain about a girl taking most of her clothes in class?” Kim snickered. “Not me.”

Nathaniel and Mark exchanged a glance. Nino rolled his eyes while he was coming over.

“Besides, it is not like Hannah is anything to look at, she is worse than Alix on that behalf. She is not like my Ondine.” The boy smiled dreamily. Nino had nothing to add, he blushed and then he remembered he was actually having an argument with Alya these days.

Ivan cleared his throat to say something, but decided against it when Mylenne approached.

“Ivan, do you remember the short break yesterday? Did Hannah ever leave her seat?” She asked quietly, but all the boys could hear the question.

“She never left her seat. She seldom leaves her seat. I miss it when you sometimes come over and sit next to me during the break.” The large boy smiled to his girlfriend.

“Okay, thanks, that is how I remember it too.” Mylenne smiled back. Then she explained to Ivan why she asked him while the two were walking towards the classroom.

Alya was listening to Lila who was in her element. Hannah was bad news. Marinette spent more and more time with her, Marinette brought Hannah pastries after they closed the bakery, like every single day? Marinette was supposed to be Alya’s best friend! Then, that new girl got some clothes designed by Marinette and even some new clothes from Chloe already last week. And Adrien was bringing gifts to her house and … Lila listed all the atrocities committed by the new girl and nodded. The phone theft was just one more thing on top of everything else.

Hannah carefully placed her cup of coffee in her locker, there was less than half a cup left and she put a lid on it. She did it with utmost care not to spill it over anything else. Then she extracted a few books from her locker and a giant French dictionary borrowed from a library.

Marinette was hyper aware of Adrien behind her back. He stood beside Max who was communicating with his mother. Apparently getting those books in a digital format was more complicated than for a normal book. The two boys discussed different options, but the final message to Max’s mother was to get anything downloadable.

“So, you had an argument with Alya?” Adrien asked Nino once the two boys met in the hallway and were walking towards the class. Nino confirmed. Marinette decided to eavesdrop. Hannah was too preoccupied with being scared of French lesson to even talk.

“Yeah, it was about her phone. She insists it was stolen, that she did not lose it.” Nino continued. “Her latest theory is that Lila took it.” The boy added quietly.

“Perhaps she’s right, you know.” Adrien sighed. He couldn’t tell his best bro that Alya was definitely right, because then he would have to explain how he knew.

“You can’t know that.” Nino cut him off. Adrien did not speak after that, deep in his thoughts about how he knew what happened, but could not explain without revealing his identity.

Marinette was furious. So now, her best friend had an argument with her boyfriend and they were obviously on bad terms because they barely spoke to each other that morning, and it was all because of Lila. And then she saw Alya and Lila enter the classroom together while engrossed in some conversation, where Lila was talking and Alya was nodding. That only reminded Marinette that she still had to explain to Hannah what Lila did yesterday. But she had no idea how without revealing that she was Ladybug.

The students were entering the classroom where Ms Bustier stood next to a basket.

“To avoid any further phone incidents, you are all asked to dispose your phones in this basket at the beginning of each class.” The teacher announced.

Most of the students obediently left their phones in the basket.

“But what will I do in case of an akuma attack?” Alya protested. She, for one, did not want to leave her phone in the basket.

Marinette peeked in her clutch bag, Tikki passed her the phone with a smile on her face. Right, she also needed to know if there was an akuma attack, she was Ladybug, but she could not draw the attention to her by insisting on keeping her phone.

Adrien pulled the phone from his pocket. He wished he brought the new phone too. He still did not switch and he could simply leave the sim-card-less device in the basket and keep his phone. He hesitated. In the meantime, Chloe made a fuss about her expensive glossy case for her new high end phone and how it was expensive and might get stolen. That made Alya and Lila nudge each other and exchange a glance. Adrien frowned. He saw Marinette was worried about the whole ordeal.

“Chloe, why don’t you give your phone to Ms Bustier directly?” Marinette proposed.

The teacher was not excited about having this additional responsibility of keeping the heiress’s phone on her person, but she relented.

“It is either that or you can put it in the safe in principal Damocles office.” Marinette shrugged. The students were not supposed to wear any valuables in school and were expected to store them there in case they arrived to school. Marinette made sure she knew the rule after she became the class president and Chloe lost her bracelet.

“Right” Chloe stared at Marinette and then at Ms Bustier. She gave her phone to the teacher who proposed to lock it up on one empty drawer in her desk and gave Chloe the key. That satisfied both of them.

After that, Ms Bustier took attendance. Lila asked to be excused as she had some business with principal Damocles and Ms Bustier let her go. Both Adrien and Marinette cringed simultaneously, they expected another Dark Owl.

The students were all in their seats when the teacher began teaching, it was French, it was literature and they were dealing with archaic forms of the language. Hannah was too scared to be sleepy, her eyes were wide open and alert to each word the teacher spoke.

The whole class dutifully copied the examples of how one would say something hundreds of years ago and how those were said now. From time to time, students would comment that even the ‘new’ language forms sounded archaic to them, but the teacher dismissed them and demanded silence.

Some of the students were annoyed, some were sleepy, but they all learned the words they were expected to and answered questions when asked.

Lila was doing neither, she was not even in the classroom. She was too busy trying to persuade principal Damocles to punish Hannah or Marinette or both for something. She filed complaints about the math class results, about the gym class, about French grammar test, about everything she could think of. The day before she barely cried her eyes out before the violet butterfly entered his computer.

Principal Damocles looked at the girl kindly and patiently. He passed her empty complaint forms and she was filling them up. Whenever she raised another issue (or when he noticed that she had in fact raised another issue, because he stopped paying attention after a while) he would instantly pass out another complaint form and motioned for her to fill it up. He knew he had to be patient with the girl, because she had that illness that made her invent lies. Of course, it was his duty to verify the complaints with the school staff, but as the pile of forms was increasing, he began to wonder if that was in fact the most optimum way to use his time. The costume of the Owl was just there, calling up to him, and he could hardly resist the urge.

“Please principal Damocles, you have to do something about Hannah and Marinette. I know for a fact that Hannah lied about her age, her citizenship and the place of birth, I can check such data in the embassy, you know. That girl had been after me since the day she stepped into this school. You have to help me, principal Damocles. I don’t know what to do any more.” Lila whined.

The man smiled gently. He never motioned to check any data about Hannah. He never even considered doing so.

“Dear Lila, why don’t you calm down. You are having one of those episodes again.” Principal Damocles patted the pile of complaints she just filled in.

Lila glared between her fingers. This man was not going to do anything about it. She needed to change her strategy, she needed to think of something else. She returned to the classroom after an hour of wasted time.

“That girl stole my phone.” Alya whispered as she motioned with her head to the seat behind Marinette.

Marinette felt relieved, Alya was finally coming around and seeing Lila for who she was. She smirked. But there was something in her back of her mind warning her that Alya would not have been so friendly with Lila just moments before. So she became serious and glanced towards Alya. And then she became aware that Lila was out of the classroom and she felt her stomach sink low.

“Can’t believe she is also stealing my best friend from me.” Alya muttered to herself.

Marinette kept so focused on the lessons that it was driving Alya crazy. That girl was never focused on a lesson, she was always staring dreamily at the boy in front of her. And she needed someone to rant.

Marinette was breaking internally while she relived her conversation from the day before, she admitted to Kagami how crazy she was about Adrien, she told about the blue scarf and even mentioned her crazy collection of gifts. That was too much. But, on the other hand, most of her friends, at least the girls, knew those secrets, so it was fine if she admitted that to Kagami. The two of them were becoming really close friends.

Lila returned to the class when the teacher had just wrapped up the lesson and was explaining the next steps on the grammar issues. Marinette noticed with relief that there was no akuma alert and Lila was back from principal Damocles and she shot glares towards both her and Hannah.

“Those of you who did not apply for tutoring or other alternative solutions and have failed the grammar test are going to attend the additional class on Tuesdays after the art classes. Understood? Or should I name all of you?” The teacher asked quietly and politely but there was no room for evading her eyes.

Kim was relieved, that was not the time he usually trained with Ondine. Nathaniel felt lucky, it was just yesterday that he arranged with Marc to be his tutor and they booked Tuesdays after school. Of course, they were going to work on their next comic book.

Lila raised her hand. She could not possibly … But the extra classes were common for the whole school and there was no space for negotiation. Unless she got another student to tutor her. Her eyes narrowed at Adrien. The boy could feel the eyes burning the back of his head, but he smiled to himself, he was already booked with tutoring Hannah.

“For homework, you will find a story or a news article and translate it into the archaic form.” The teacher finished the two exhausting hours.

The biology teacher spectacularly unveiled a plastic replica of a human skeleton. There was a wave of disgusted noises through the classroom mingled with a few cheers. Lila decided to ignore the performance and plan her strategy: get Adrien to tutor her and model with her again, frame Hannah and Marinette for something more, possibly not school related.

“Can anyone name this bone?” The teacher asked.

“Femur.” Hannah replied proudly.

“And this one?” The teacher asked next.

“Patella” Hannah replied.

The teacher adjusted her glasses, looked at Hannah and pointed to the next bone. The rest of the class was silent.

“Tibia. Fibula” Hannah grinned. The teacher moved her finger. “Tarsus. Metatarsus. Proximum phalanx. Medium phalanx. Distant Phalanx.” The rest of the class stared.

The teacher actually checked in her book.

“We are not going to learn such detailed anatomy here.” Were her hands slightly trembling? “You should know what is a spine, a skull and other basic facts. This year we are going to learn about the human body. And apparently I have a replacement teacher in this class.”

But Hannah shook her head and made herself look smaller.

The rest of the class muttered words of surprise, amazement and praise.

Marinette blushed. There was one particular human whose anatomy she studied … she hitched a breath and eeped, and the specimen was just in front of her and he turned to the sound she released from her mouth, and he smiled at her gently. The exchange did not go unnoticed by the rest of the class, Chloe rolled her eyes, Mylenne smiled, Alix snickered.

Hannah knew her knowledge came with a price, and she remembered the price rather vividly. To make it worse, her performance in her moments when she assisted her parents in some basement turned to hospital ward now inspired her parents to push her to study medicine. She knew she could do it, to go to school and then university and then do the job. But she sort of did not want that, she did not want to patch up people after they got injured in a war. She wanted to prevent the whole thing from happening in the first place.

The teacher proceeded to teach and Hannah paid undivided attention. The fact that she already knew this meant she understood what the teacher was saying, even if there were many unknown words to her, she recognized their meaning from what she knew. To Ivan’s amazement, she was taking notes, she was learning French.

The bell rang for a lunch break. Alya bolted for her phone. Chloe proudly strolled to the locked drawer and picked up her phone. Adrien strategically waited for Lila to take her phone before he approached the basket. Apparently, Marinette did the same as she was right on his side. He smiled again, took his phone and checked his messages, then he grinned and looked at Marinette. She obviously got the same message. She smiled to her phone and blushed when she raised her eyes towards him again.

“Adrien” Lila exclaimed victoriously. “I have the perfect idea. You should tutor me in French. We don’t have to do it in school, I could go to your house. I just sent a text to Nathalie and she replied that she approved for you to tutor one student.”

Adrien first lost his smile the moment he heard Lila’s voice. But he waited for her to finish with her speech before he plastered his perfect model smile and replied. “Yes Lila, I have one student to tutor already. And it has to be in school, scheduled and closely supervised.”

“So you will take me?” She continued while her hands went after him.

The boy took a step back to avoid her touch. “No, As I said, I already have a student to tutor and we already had our first session. I can say it went rather well.”

“But you can switch, you could not possibly take someone else when you could tutor me?” Lila purred while she was walking after Adrien and he was literally walking backwards to avoid her.

Hannah picked up her phone and Marinette already motioned for her to keep quiet and follow her for lunch. But Marinette did not move to leave the classroom, she wanted to protect Adrien.

“He can’t just abandon a student he agreed to tutor.” Marinette spoke quietly, but she could not hide the anger from her voice.

Lila narrowed her eyes towards Marinette.

“Who is it? You?” She spat.

Marinette felt Hannah stiffened at her side. Hannah was ready to give up on Adrien as her tutor only to please Lila, if nothing else. Staying for one hour each Tuesday did not look much worse than having a tutor each Monday. She was collecting courage to speak up.

“That is none of your business Lila.” Adrien replied. That made Hannah rethink her decision to speak up.

“Oh Adrien.” Lila changed her demeanour into a sly false sweet note. “I am sure it is important for Gabriel’s brand that his muse has the perfect score in French and it is completely logical that you should tutor me, I’m sure your father agrees.”

“My father already agreed that I tutor a different student.” Adrien replied coldly.

“We’ll see about that.” Lila sing sang her reply while she glared at the boy and stomped out from the classroom.

“Are you sure she is worth it?” Chloe noted as she examined her nails. Adrien turned to her only to notice that the eyes of his childhood friend have flicked towards the spot where Marinette and Hannah stood still.

Adrien tried comprehend which ‘she’ Chloe was referring to.

“Lila isn’t.” He muttered. Chloe rolled her eyes. The boy pondered, Lila was definitely not worth anything, he had to put up with her, but Chloe motioned towards Hannah and Marinette. Hannah was definitely worth more that Lila, he knew that, he made it his mission to help the girl. And Marinette, she was worth anything, he smiled to himself.

“Yes.” he replied with a gentle smile.

Chloe huffed, crossed her arms and looked to the side. Then she looked back straight into his eyes. She wanted to tell him how none of those girls deserved him, how none of them really knew nor understood how the two of them lived, how it was to grow up with each move dissected by the public, how it was to keep the appearance, the image, that was associated with their status, and how it was to have parents too busy to actually love. She wanted to tell him everything.

“I am going to have lunch with Kagami in the park.” Adrien spoke quickly.

“You should go then.” Chloe replied coldly and looked to the side. Right, that girl was the real competition, Kagami came from the same background, she knew what it was like to be an heir to a family throne and reputation.

During the conversation between Chloe and Adrien, Marinette motioned for Hannah to follow and stepped out from the classroom only to find Alya and Nino were arguing.

“I’m telling you she stole my phone.” Alya insisted.

“And I’m telling you that you’re wrong.” Nino replied while he adjusted his red hat.

Hannah stepped out after Marinette and that was the moment Alya decided to stomp away from her boyfriend.

“What is wrong?” Marinette asked Nino quietly.

Nino contemplated for a moment if he should just say it or not. Marinette was Alya’s best friend. But then, Marinette was obviously friend with Hannah too. And Hannah was right there.

Adrien stepped out from the classroom and noticed indecisive Nino, questioning Marinette and confused Hannah, well the last one was probably confused by the fact that she was still awake.

“What’s wrong?” Adrien unintentionally repeated the same question posed by Marinette.

Nino glanced towards his best bro.

“Him and Alya had an argument.” Marinette replied timidly.

Adrien was not sure he wanted to get involved into that, but obviously Marinette was interested so maybe he should take the side of his best friend.

“Alya decided her phone was stolen yesterday. I told her what I saw, the only one who left the classroom to do it was Lila, but now she got into her head that it was Hannah who stole her phone.” Nino spoke in one breath.

Hannah looked at the boy with tired, sleepy and sad eyes.

“She didn’t.” Both Adrien and Marinette replied in unison. Then they both turned their eyes to Hannah.

“Lila!” Marinette hissed. Adrien turned to the girl. He knew Lila stole Alya’s phone, but how could possibly Marinette know that too? “I saw her and Alya this morning before school. They were discussing something. That was probably her idea.” Marinette added as she looked at Nino. There, she had the perfect way to warn Hannah without revealing her identity. She just needed to build a plausible case. She did not expect to get constructive help.

“Then it must be Lila who has stolen the phone and pushed the blame on Hannah.” Adrien concluded. He seized the opportunity. He could warn his friends about Lila without revealing anything from the Plagg’s role in the matter.

“You didn’t do anything wrong Hannah.” Marinette spoke to the girl who was almost crying.

“It is okay, you’re cool dude.” Nino smiled. “But I think Alya just lost the phone.”

Marinette was not sure how to respond to that. Hannah was relieved to hear that she was not actually blamed by the students around her.

“Why don’t the two of you join us for lunch in the park?” Adrien invited.

The four of them went to the locker room. Hannah picked up her lunch box and decided to leave the remains of her now cold coffee to wait until after the lunch break. Marinette had pastries and Nino had a sandwich. Adrien expected his lunch to be delivered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone wants to scream at Alya?


	31. The Lunch Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien, Marinette, Luka, Kagami, Nino and Hannah go for a lunch break in a park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannah is there only as a motivation for the conversation. This chapter was a bit complicated, hope everyone's motivation got out.

The Lunch Break

Adrien, Marinette and Hannah were descending the school steps. Luka was riding a bike and drove Kagami on it. The day before, Luka picked up Kagami from the park after her fencing lesson with her mother. Mme Tsurugi was not pleased, but allowed for her daughter to go and visit Marinette. Luka was doing deliveries for the bakery while Marinette blurted out some of the embarrassing stuff she did because she loved Adrien. So when Luka offered Kagami a ride home, she accepted eagerly. The two of them soon found a common subject, and it was Marinette and Adrien. They spilled no secrets, because that was not the way for both of them, but they both mentioned how the other two need to talk more and made a pact to achieve just that, they both knew more than they were ready to say, Luka knew Marinette loved Adrien ever since he saw the girl film the vido for the boy, and Kagami had just learned about it and could not let it go, since she was always so resolved to tackle each issue without hesitation.

“Surprise!” They both exclaimed together when they reached the school.

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other, Marinette saw them on the bicycle the day before, but did not expect that, while it was a complete surprise for Adrien. Hannah smiled at the duo and waved at them, tired, sleepy and unaware of the teenage drama unfolding before her.

“Your papa packed us a box, I picked up Kagami and we were thinking about having a picnic. What do you say?” The boy grinned.

Adrien and Marinette approached and took Hannah with them. Then Adrien noticed that Nino got out from the school and waved him over. Luka was surprised to see Nino without Alya. Kagami was not sure if the two additions were about to spoil her plans.

“Do you have enough food for six?” Marinette asked carefully, she could always run home for more.

“Actually, I have my box.” Adrien shrugged and motioned towards the car where his bodyguard was waiting with the lunch box. Adrien wished they did not bother the man with the ride, but that was probably Nathalie’s way of checking up on him during the lunch break.

“And I have my sandwich.” Nino added.

Hannah had some piece of pastry from yesterday, she nibbled on it on their way to the park. She joined the group just because they asked her, she was not going to deny them anything, she wanted to make friends so much.

They went to a nearby park and laid down a blanket in a shade of a tree. Hannah collapsed on it as soon as it was laid down, but the rest of the group chatted about anything. Marinette made sure that the subject changed as soon as it could drift to Alya, phones or Lila.

Luka was explaining a silly traffic incident he saw that morning. Two guys had an argument and another man with an accordion started to sing and play to cheer them up and prevent them from getting akumatized. Kagami laughed at the story although she already heard parts of it. Then Luka explained how he joined in with his guitar and then he started to play for them. Marinette was distributing pastries when all four of them noticed that Hannah fell asleep on the blanket.

“This is a good sign, she is okay.” Adrien concluded. Then he added quietly to Kagami and Luka “Lila persuaded Alya that Hannah stole her phone.” Nino shook his head to that and rolled his eyes but then he nodded to the rest of the group to confirm. From Kagami and Luka, there was only silence. They had a different subject in mind for the lunch break conversation.

“She was helping her mother learn all night.” Marinette sighed. “That is why she is so tired.” She thought it might be for the best, the girl at least did not get akumatized.

“She fell asleep in class yesterday.” Adrien added, he feared there was a pattern to it. Hannah was obviously keen on learning, but also overworked and tired, adding Lila to that was a lot to take.

Marinette decided to take off her jacket and cover her and Adrien joined her and covered Hannah’s legs. They both took a few steps away and sat on the grass in the sun. It was warm, but Marinette felt her cheeks get even warmer. She was sitting just next to Adrien and they both waited for the other three to join them. They sat down, opened the pastry box, put aside several favourite pieces for Hannah and then annihilated the rest. They talked about pastries and food in general only to avoid the subject that was hanging above them. And while Adrien and Marinette wanted to tackle the fact that they both knew Lila stole the phone, Luka and Kagami wanted the other two to talk about something completely different.

Nino sighed tiredly. “It was Lila who stole the phone if anyone had stolen the phone, I’m still certain that Alya just dropped it in the locker room.”

“I think Lila did take her phone.” Adrien replied determinedly. Nino turned towards him. Adrien pondered how to explain how could he be so certain.

“I agree.” Marinette added quickly. She knew it for a fact but ...

Well, Nino expected that Marinette would agree with Adrien on just about anything.

“Why?” Nino finally asked.

Luka and Kagami were listening intently.

Marinette wanted to say that Lila was probably jealous of Hannah and the attention Adrien had given her, or something, but then she remembered how Alya used exactly the same reasoning to dismiss Marinette’s claims that Lila was a liar.

Adrien was quiet. He knew Lila did not really need a reason to be nasty to someone.

Kagami and Luka faced him both.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Kagami inquired.

“Why don’t you tell them everything you know about Lila.” Luka suggested to Adrien.

Marinette wanted to tell she knew.

Adrien wanted to tell he knew.

But neither could explain it without admitting their kwami retrieved the phone.

So Adrien began to speak, about how Ladybug revealed Lila was a liar, then about her lying her way into his home, they listed the illnesses and excuses together, Marinette briefly described how she got expelled from school and then they finally reached the event from the day before.

“Without the introduction, I would say Alya lost her phone. But now, with everything you said, I believe Lila did steal it to frame someone.” Luka concluded.

“I trust your judgement about that.” Kagami concluded as a matter of a fact, she was not willing to give Lila some benefit of the doubt after Lila got her akumatized over that photo.

“Yeah, dude, you never told me about that episode with Ladybug.” Nino half teased. He knew how his best friend had eyes for Ladybug and was genuinely surprised that the boy so casually forgot to mention such an encounter.

“I thought you would say I was bragging. My father pulled me out from school then because I lost that book on the same day. So it was not the first thing on my mind when I got back to the class.” Adrien shrugged. “Besides, it would sound just like one of those stories Lila told us and I assume those are all lies.”

Marinette was silent, she remembered those events, the book, the suspicion that Adrien and later Gabriel was Hawk Moth, her begging Master Fu to return the book and get Adrien back to school, she was too overwhelmed to say anything. Adrien looked at Marinette, her blue eyes changed expression every few seconds, he thought how she was processing what he said.

“I’m sorry I did not say anything before, but it would sound as unbelievable as her stories.” Adrien told Marinette with a gentle smile. That smile made Luka finally take the leap.

“I think you skipped a part of the story on Lila.” Luka mentioned offhandedly.

Marinette stiffened. “Which part?” She feared there was more, did she accidentally let something slip that she knew only as Ladybug? She tried to replay everything she had said.

But Luka was watching Adrien expectantly.

Marinette turned towards the boy.

Kagami looked at Luka and then turned towards Adrien. After Luka explained Adrien’s motivation for the photo shoot with Lila, both of them concluded that Adrien loved Marinette just as much as she loved him. Kagami and Luka decided they needed this boy to become aware of his feelings both for her and Marinette. And possibly Luka, Kagami concluded. It was her who decided that it was a good idea to make the other two talk about everything they avoided, Luka did not want to push it, and now the same boy decidedly did encourage their friends to talk about it. Kagami was impressed, but did not show it, of course.

“Hey bro, which part?” Nino repeated the question once he noticed that all eyes were aimed at the same person. Adrien knew the moment Luka stared at him what he was expected to share.

“I persuaded Lila to lie to get you back to school.” Adrien spoke softly to Marinette. She blushed and gasped for air. “In exchange, I did that photo shoot with her.” He finished. There was a short silent pause. “But I have no idea how she persuaded my father, I just found her there on the set of the photo shoot. That day he made her his muse. That wasn’t me.” The boy added. He glanced towards Kagami and noticed she was okay with what she heard.

“Dude.” Nino spoke while his mouth went into a wide grin. Alya would be so happy to hear Adrien did something like that for Marinette, his girlfriend was so invested in the two of them to get together. But then he remembered he was not on the best terms with Alya in the last few days so his smile fell a bit. And then he remembered how much Adrien disliked Lila and his face fell even more, he looked at his best friend with sad eyes. And it was all because of Lila.

“Adrien.” Marinette whispered. Her eyes became watery. This boy did that to get her back to school? She felt guilty. “You … you shouldn’t have.” The tears were streaming from her blue eyes. It was too much for her to take. Adrien reached towards her face, he wiped the tears away and then he pulled her closer and hugged her. She was not sad nor angry, just touched by what he did for her.

“I warned her not to hurt my friends.” The boy whispered. He was holding her and she was crying. He did not want her to cry, he wanted her to be happy and might have been mildly concerned about the appearance of a certain type of a dark butterfly and scanned the surroundings, but it was a nice and sunny September day, the park was full of people, he even noticed Ivan and Kim on the other side of the park together with a few more classmates, the pink hair probably belonged to Alix.

Kagami and Luka observed the scene quietly. Well, they got him to speak, as planned, but Kagami wanted her to speak too. She was not the one to hesitate, but Luka held her hand firmly and signalled it was not the right moment. He warned her, repeatedly, while they were making their plans, that there was a moment for everything, that these things have to be revealed and unfolded in the perfect rhythm, calmly and melodiously not to cause discord between them. Well, he used more musical terminology while he described their plan, not that Kagami remembered all the details, but she did remember a very nice melody he played for her just when he dropped her off in front of the building where she lived.

Nino was wide eyed. Adrien was holding Marinette in his arms. She was crying. His dude actually modelled that gig with Lila only to bring Marinette back to school? And now they were holding each other while Luka and Kagami were watching, they both smiled and looked somewhat satisfied? That was a bit too much to digest. He needed his music to put his thoughts in the right place. He was still messed up from the argument with Alya and he might have missed on something. The boy got on his feet and walked away into the shade where he put his earphones on his ears, he played some music and decided to share the blanket with Hannah, who was still hard asleep.

“You did too much for me.” Marinette whispered. She could not accept what he did. That photo shoot, that darn photo shoot, where Lila’s hands were all over him, that sly smile on her face and those cruel eyes, while he plastered that model smile on his face with sad helpless look in his eyes. “That was too much of a sacrifice.”

“It was not too much. Not for you.” Adrien replied. He watched as one ladybug landed on her shoulder. He remembered how he called her his everyday Ladybug and then he remembered Ladybug too. He never knew how to defend those he cared for without putting himself in the harms way, did he? But he never cared much about what happened to himself.

Luka decided he was inspired (or could not sit there and watch any longer) and he left towards his bicycle and his guitar. He was in his jacket and the sun was high and warm and he preferred to stay in the shade while he strummed the guitar. It was his way of dealing with it, stay on the side, pick up the feelings from the air and translate them into music. It was going to be a beautiful piece of music, he just had to give it shape. He smiled and played his guitar.

Without Luka’s presence, Kagami could not hesitate any more. Luka made Adrien speak, the least she could do was to push Marinette to do the same. Otherwise, that boy that was playing the guitar in the shade was going to be more successful in their plan than her and she was not going to let him have that so easily.

“You did the same for him.” Kagami stated bluntly.

Both Adrien and Marinette got startled from their state and turned their faces to their friend. Kagami watched Marinette expectantly. Marinette looked terrified for a moment.

“You did the same for him.” Kagami repeated slowly, and stressed each word.

Marinette remembered that conversation from the bakery the day before, she kept telling Kagami about all the stupid things she did for Adrien. Did she also mention the book? She could not remember. She probably did. Was that what Kagami was referring to? She remembered telling about the scarf and not signed cards and gifts, but she could not admit to that, if she did, then she would have to admit why she made them and her feelings, and that was not something Marinette felt ready for.

Adrien was now looking at Marinette expectantly.

“Why don’t you tell him?” Kagami demanded.

Luka noticed that Kagami was pushing the subject and subtly motioned to her to move over towards him. He expected it was not the time for Marinette to talk about her secrets and anything else she did for Adrien. Kagami did not tell him the whole story, but he knew enough and he knew Marinette.

“What have you done?” Adrien asked gently. He watched ladybug land and crawl over Marinette’s shirt. “Kagami said you did the same for me.” He continued slowly because Marinette was not responding. He was thinking quickly as he tried to remember when was he in the same situation, he was not expelled but he was pulled out from school. “When my father pulled me out from school … did you do something?” She stiffened and that was all the answer he needed. The bug was crawling over her shirt. “Father pulled me out from school because I lost a book. Did you find the book?” He asked gently and held her arms just below her shoulders. She was looking at the grass and played with the leaves. What was the point in lying about this? He phrased it so that she could admit that. She nodded slowly. “You returned the book to my father, that is why he let me go back to school?” She nodded again.

She was hiding her face and he let her. He did not push for more information before he let these facts sink in. The two of them were sitting alone in the sun. He closed his eyes and let the sun keep them both warm. He glanced towards Luka and Kagami in the shade. Luka was playing a gentle and calming melody while Kagami sat just behind him, they leaned on each other’s back. Hannah was sleeping covered by his and Marinette’s jacket while Nino was sitting beside her and moved his head in some rhythm coming from his headphones.

Marinette was hiding her face. At first she was overwhelmed by his generosity and kindness, he agreed to a photo shoot with a person he obviously despised, only to get her back to school. Then he hugged her, and she blushed severely while she cried grateful tears. She could not move, the boy she liked, the boy she loved, so much, he pulled her into a hug and let her cry. Then Kagami mentioned she did the same for him and wanted her to speak, but she couldn’t. But then he practically guessed what she did for him. She did not need to say a word. She could not say a word to him. She was breathing in his scent, she felt his warm and firm arms around her, it was Adrien who held her, she was speechless for a while. But after minutes of steady breathing she managed to regain some self control.

“I ...” Marinette finally spoke, but she was still hiding her face. “I saw when Lila stole the book from you in the library.” She had to tell him how it happened, or, well, slightly edited version.

“I knew it!” The boy exclaimed quietly. “I was with her when it got lost.”

“And she dropped it in the dumpster not to get caught.” Marinette continued.

“So that is where you found it?” Adrien replied. Marinette nodded. She was not sure how to edit her story onward without revealing her identity, perhaps it was not even needed. He did not push for more details.

Nino stirred and got onto his feet. He nudged Hannah first and then turned to the others.

“It is fifteen minutes until the afternoon class.” The boy announced.

Adrien was getting on his feet while he never let go of Marinette. She kept close, but turned her face away to hide her blush. He noticed her ears were red. But he assumed from all the excitement and everything they talked about he was not much better. He also felt the heat in his cheeks.

“So, Lila got both of us out from school.” The boy nudged her with his elbow.

That made Marinette smile.

Then they both laughed.

“And we both got each other back to school, somehow.” Adrien concluded between the laughs.

“Pound it?” Adrien offered his fist.

“Pound it!” She bumped his fist and they both turned to the shade below the tree. Luka was still playing the guitar and Kagami was leaning into his back with her eyes closed … probably meditating. Nino passed the pastries they left for Hannah to the girl and she was eating.

“We have to start if we want to be in school on time.” Nino motioned and soon all four of them surrounded Kagami and Luka.

“Tome for school?” Luka asked casually.

“Yeah.” Adrien replied casually.

“It was nice to spend the lunch break with you.” Kagami greeted, she had a huge smile, they both spoke, mission accomplished.

The four students of Francoise Dupont left while Kagami and Luka drove away on his bicycle.

Nino decided to walk together with Hannah and let Marinette and Adrien continue … whatever they were doing there on the grass. He was deep in his thoughts. Besides, him and Adrien are going to go to the music room and Marinette and Hannah were probably going to the art room. Nino was actually glad that Alya was going to be in the library for that writing group.

They were walking in silence when Adrien took Marinette’s hand and looked at her. She was blushing and breathing heavily.

“Thank you Marinette.” He spoke quietly.

“Thank you Adrien!” She almost shouted back. Then she collected herself. “I mean thank you! I just returned a book to your father.” Well, it was the Grimoire, the Book of Lore, it was a big deal indeed, but she was not supposed to know what it was, so she played it down. “You … you did so much more.” She felt sick to her stomach now that she was aware what exactly he did for her.

“Well, I got you back to school. It was worth it. You were worth it.” Adrien continued.

Marinette was becoming redder and redder.

Adrien smiled at her blue eyes and her red face. She smiled at him adoringly.

The two of them were already in the school yard, they both lost sight of Nino and Hannah.

“Hey you two!” They both heard Alya shout from afar. She spent her lunch break with Lila. They talked about everything. It was all much clearer now. That Hannah girl lied to the authorities, and now she was stealing Alya’s life, first Marinette, then Adrien and Nino was even spending lunch break with her! Alya and Lila watched from the other side of the school and saw that Nino and Hannah returned from lunch break together. Although Lila noted that Nino looked smitten already and that Hannah basically stole her boyfriend, Alya knew him better than that and knew that was not the case (yet). She demanded answers and knew whom to ask first. Because she was not going for a jealous attach directly on her boyfriend, she was going at the two of her friends first.

Marinette stiffened, and both her and Adrien released the hands they were holding up until that moment. Alya was so focused on her questions about Nino and Hannah that she did not even notice their move.

“What is going on here?” Alya demanded while she was approaching.

“Um, nothing?” Adrien shrugged. There was no way he was going to admit to Alya what they just shared between them.

But Alya was nothing if not persistent to pry the information out. Marinette was rather naturally useless, blushing and speechless so Alya gave up on her, while Adrien was much tougher nut to crack. It took Alya to mention how she was certain Hannah stole her phone and lied in her paperwork to be admitted to school for both of them to remember they were supposed to protect the girl. At that moment they looked at each other in panic and ran away towards the locker room.

Alya was satisfied, she finally made the two of them to see the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes, Alya gets manipulated again, but after Volpina, this is even more believable.  
> Adrien got a few extra braincells here, but it is more of a lucky guess and the fact that Marinette did not invent the most ridiculous story to hide the truth.


	32. The Locker Room Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title suggests it all, basically, Lila in action again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter starts slightly before the last chapter had finished, but only because it deals mostly with Hannah.  
> Parts of the conversation are a mess intentionally (actually I wanted it more messy, but it would hardly make any sense).

The locker room incident

Hannah woke up on a blanket in a park, covered with two jackets. Slowly, her brain reminded her where she was, she saw Nino first, then she heard the guitar and noticed Luka and Kagami using each other to support each other’s back. Only then her eyes adjusted to the part outside the shade where Adrien and Marinette were sitting. Marinette probably burned in the sun because she was rather red in the face. Adrien was smiling and his cheeks were little red too. She was always amazed how people with fair skin burned easily.

“Hey, you had enough sleep?” Adrien asked while Marinette glanced over with concern.

Hannah nodded and took a cookie she was given. She felt much better.

“Sorry I slept.” She felt guilty for falling asleep on her friends, it happened already on Sunday and she worried how the other might see her, but nobody resented her, apparently. She was quiet and her thoughts got her back to the reason of her not having enough sleep. Her mother often scolded Hannah for different reasons, and her father always had the same reaction ‘you are a big girl, you can take it’. So she took it.

Hannah ate a piece of pastry and walked quietly beside Nino. Marinette and Adrien were having a conversation just behind them. She did not bother to eavesdrop. Her mind was full of her own problems.

“I didn’t take Alya’s phone.” She told Nino quietly while they were walking swiftly back to school. She looked at the boy slightly wary of his reaction.

“That’s okay. I know you didn’t.” Nino replied with a smile.

They continued walking in silence, each of them in their own thoughts. They separated when they reached the school yard, Nino went after Kim and Ivan, while Hannah padded to the locker room, she remembered how there was some coffee left in the locker.

The locker room was quiet, few students left just when she got in. She caught some sleep, but she knew she needed that awful liquid to keep her awake during the afternoon classes. Hannah was sipping the cold remains of the coffee her father gave her in the morning, the taste was awful, but the effect was instant.

“Hey Hannah.” A sly voice greeted her from behind.

“Hi Lila.” Hannah grinned happily. “What can I do for you?” She offered the phrase she heard several times from polite people. She was cautious, she still wanted Lila to like her. “Do you need help with homework?” Hannah was not sure what to think about Lila. She admired her so much for her charity work that she was ready to forgive for any flaw, Lila kept whining about having difficulties with school and Hannah was ready to help with schoolwork or homework although she was not so sure that her knowledge in French would be sufficient for some subjects. But there was another reason. Whenever she had some issues with classmates in school, most of them were perfectly happy with her helping with their homework from time to time. That is why she thought Lila might start to like her if she only helped her with the school work.

“You help? No!” Lila still remembered how the teachers clearly saw through when she planted the answers Hannah provided. So Lila concluded that using Hannah for her school work was useless. Lila had a different agenda. She spent the lunch break planting ideas to Alya’s head. She was on good terms with Gabriel. _Marinette was bad news, she was in fact a bully, she wanted to steal Adrien from Lila who was secretly dating him,_ _oh yes they kept it a secret_ _because of fans,_ _and Marinette only wanted Adrien for connections and her future career, she did not really care for the boy. Gabriel thought very highly of Lila. And Adrien too._ _Oh she could not tell how many times she was in the Agreste mansion. Then she expanded the idea and Marinette was helping Hannah to s_ _t_ _eal Nino from Alya._ Lila got Alya’s attention from the start, as soon as she referred to Adrien’s father as Gabriel.

Hannah was not sure what else could Lila want from her, if she did not want her to do the schoolwork for her. She really did not have much to offer. She could only wait and hear what this girl wanted from her. She stood there as a puppy, ready to be kicked but she hoped for treats.

“I was in the library. The librarian refused to help, but I have my ways.” Lila made a dramatic pause, but Hannah used it to replay all the words in her head and understand what she was told. Then she nodded that she understood and concentrated on the next words.

“You are going to give up on Adrien tutoring you, because he is going to tutor me.” Lila demanded. She had to trick the librarian into giving out that information and the lady way not particularly happy about it. Lila did ‘slip’ out that Adrien was her secret boyfriend, that she was sent by Gabriel Agreste and pretended to have talked with him only to lean that Adrien chose to tutor Hannah.

Hannah was slightly confused by the demand. She replayed the words in her head. She was expected to do something with Adrien and the boy should tutor Lila. She was too tired to think clearly about the moments when the lunch break started, Adrien and Lila had some discussion and the boy was not happy, was it about that? She thought about being tutored by Adrien. She was never tutored before, she often helped others with science and math. She was used to learning on her own and giving up on a tutor did not seem such a big deal.

Lila felt victorious, she looked at the girl from above, she even stood on her toes to seem taller. She stared down at the girl who was looking back with wide eyes and no other reaction. There was no fear, why was this girl not scared?

“Um, okay?” Hannah replied timidly after a short pause, she thought she had to say something. But her brain was still processing. She was tired and her brain was not as quick as usual. She was still tired from being awake all night. She was first sorry to give up on Adrien as a tutor, and then she remembered how Adrien did not want to tutor Lila, she made a mistake, she wanted to fix it, she needed to say something, but what? She was not good at school drama, she never was.

“Good” Lila smiled slyly.

Hannah smiled back. Perhaps she could ask Adrien to tutor both of them? Perhaps Lila would see that Adrien does not want that and would stop chasing him? She was going to talk to Adrien, and probably Marinette, she was the class president after all, and they were going to find a solution. Yeah, she was in much worse trouble before, she was just sorry to bother her new friends with this. She was serious and she contemplated exactly which words to use to say that she did not agree to give up on tutoring just to talk to Adrien about that.

“Now you are going to admit that you stole Alya’s phone.” Lila continued. Her eyes glowed wickedly, she smiled like a man selling used cars. She was going to nail it. She was winning, she knew it as soon as Hannah’s face changed expression.

Hannah took her sweet time to understand what Lila was asking from her. It took her even longer to comprehend that this was real, that Lila demanded Hannah to accept the blame for something she did not do. It was probably a blessing that she heard about the idea before so she did not scream nor cry.

“No” Hannah replied after she processed the words. She shook her head and took a step back. This was a disaster. She knew she was going to be expelled from school if she admitted to theft. There was no way she was going to do that. She knew the rules, and that was one rule she never intended to break. She worked so far to get there, to get to this school, and now this girl wanted her to give it all up.

“Oh yes you will. You see, I know you lied about everything, your age, your place of birth, your identity, your nationality, everything!” Lila continued. Her tone was pure mean. “I don’t even know if this is your real name.” Lila poked Hannah with her index finger. “You are going to tell the class that you stole Alya’s phone and that Marinette made you do it.” That was all Lila needed to keep Alya in her pocket and that way she was going to have a free pass to do anything to Marinette. Adrien could not do anything about it after that confession. Lila had no clue what she was really threatening with. All she wanted was to be back at the centre of attention, she did not want her classmates to discuss how Hannah knew this or could do that. And Marinette was to suffer too.

Hannah looked at Lila with her eyes wide. She was caught, of course she was, Lila must have known from the start that Hannah lied in her application to be accepted to France with the rest of her family. It was much easier to fill in the citizenship the same way as her brothers did than to even try the long and exhausting procedure that would be required for her. And then the rest of her family would be lost in some limbo together with her instead of being there, safe in Paris. Or they would have to leave her there, alone, and her father would never have done that. She looked at Lila victorious grin. Hannah knew she lost. Whatever she did, she was going to be kicked out from school. She could already see her new friends being disappointed in her.

At that moment Adrien and Marinette burst into the locker room together.

“Remember what I told you Hannah.” Lila reminded the girl slyly.

“Leave her alone, Lila!” Marinette shouted. But Adrien literally threw himself between Lila and Hannah. He pulled Marinette behind to stand next to Hannah so he could somehow protect both girls.

Lila just slowly wrapped a strand of her hair around her index finger and leaned forward into Adrien’s space. He leaned back with a disgusted expression on his face.

Marinette wanted to step forward, but he literally held her behind him. He was not aware that his arm was wrapped around her, and Marinette was too busy as she glared at the liar to be fully aware of her own arm wrapped around Adrien. Both of them were far too ready to protect the other (or anybody else for that matter) from the vile liar before them. But then Lila frowned at the sight. Then she schooled herself. If her plan worked, she was not going to see the two of them near each other any time soon.

“I will go to the principal Damocles, Hannah.” Lila flashed one more wicked smile before she turned around and left the locker room. That was an empty threat, the man did not believe anything Lila said, but Hannah did not know that.

Adrien was taking deep breaths. Marinette noticed her arm was around Adrien, she meeped and pulled back. The boy turned around, slowly. Marinette was pink in her face and felt rather awkward.

“What happened?” Adrien asked Hannah. That reminded Marinette why she was there, not to wrap her arms around Adrien nor to feel embarrassed about it, she was there to protect her young classmate. Yes, that was it!

Marinette turned around and faced Hannah.

The poor girl in question was barely breathing.

“She ... wants ... you … to … tutor … her.” Hannah stammered out.

“Of course!” Marinette rolled her eyes. Why was she even surprised by this? She should have expected this, she should have anticipated this, she should have prevented this.

“No way. I am not doing it. I am tutoring you.” Adrien stressed each I and then you. He smiled reassuringly, he wanted the girl to know that he is not changing his mind and it was him who decided that.

But Hannah knew better. She took a long deep breath.

“Um, you cant. I will be expelled.” Hannah continued. She had to tell them, had to say goodbye. Lila said she was going to the school principal, and she was going to tell him the truth and then she was going to be expelled from school.

“Why?” Marinette inquired. She already had an idea, she was ready to go after Lila, hey, she was so angry she might even push the liar down the stairs for real this time. But Adrien grabbed her hand, so Marinette did what she always did, blushed and stood there with her brain slightly messed up.

“She said … I say … I stole … “ Hannah was catching breath.

“She wants you to say that you stole Alya’s phone to get you expelled.” Adrien concluded.

Hannah nodded.

It was neither new nor original, Lila was getting sloppy, she used the same formula.

“You will not say any such thing. She stole the phone.” Marinette shouted. Adrien held her hand tighter. She blushed again.

Hannah hitched a breath. So Lila actually wanted Hannah to take the blame for her. She thought Lila and Alya were friends and why would Lila steal her phone? This was not making any sense. Perhaps here in Paris it was not normal to borrow phones and stuff. But Adrien and Marinette gor clothes and books and pastries for her. Well, it was not the phone. But perhaps she missed something important. Of course she did. This was hard, she could take the blame, but she would be expelled. Or maybe she could beg to be let go just this one time and stay in school? On the other hand, if Lila revealed the other Hannah’s secret, then she would be expelled too, but not only from school, from Paris and France. And her family probably too. What if they took her parents in prison? What was going to happen with her brothers and her?

“But I have to help her. She is a nice person.” Hannah concluded. Well she knew Lila was not a nice person to her, but Lila did so much for charities, and Hannah knew how much she lied to get there, to that particular school in Paris, France, so yes, Lila had every reason to despise Hannah and behave that way, right? Hannah saw people treated much worse for doing fairly less of a crime. But she did not know how to say any of that. Besides, if Lila would be so nice to keep Hannah’s secret and not get her family expelled from France, then she would really be a nice person, wouldn’t she?

“Lila?” Adrien asked incredulously.

“Why?” Marinette frowned. Both of them were seriously doubting the girl’s sanity. But then they remembered she was younger, she was new to school and she was through an experience the two of them could hardly comprehend.

“It is just … She works for many charities. Charities supported me and my family. They gave us food and medicine and even clothing.” Hannah smiled. Marinette and Adrien exchanged a look. “I want to thank her, I owe my life to her, I owe the world to people like her.” Hannah gushed with a wide smile. She did not have to act to hide the real reason. Adrien sighed. Marinette rolled her eyes.

“That liar. You shouldn’t lie for her.” She muttered. Hannah was scared. She was a liar too. So Marinette hated liars, well she could never admit to Marinette what she did.

“It is time to explain you something.” Adrien smiled gently but his eyes were sad. So he told her in simple sentences that everything Lila told about herself was a lie.

Then Marinette explained how Lila got her back to school and they both concluded that after that excuse they could easily dismiss anything Lila could say to principal Damocles.

Hannah could not believe the story she was told. Adrien and Marinette took turns in explaining why she should not believe Lila. It was hard to take in, so Lila did not work for charities? None of them?

“She is a liar. She is a manipulator.” Adrien warned gently.

“She threatened me. She looks at you badly already.” Marinette added.

“When did she threaten you?” Adrien flipped his face towards Marinette so quickly they could hear a tiny crack from his neck.

“That day we all switched seats. Not important. Anyway.” Marinette continued. “But she got me expelled and now she wants to do the same to you.”

The last sentence was the one that really scared Hannah. So that was what Lila wanted. She knew her and her brothers were lucky to be allowed to go to regular schools. Few of her fellow refugees got to a regular school so quickly. Being expelled from school and the country was the worst threat someone could place upon her. Because all she wanted was an education, it was planted deep in her mind and her heart that it was the only way for her to get out of the gutter. She never dreamed of being a princess or marrying someone rich. It was always school and then work. It was something she would achieve on her own.

“But when I grow up I want to be a scientist, I want to study climate change, I want to change the World.” The girl was rambling. She knew how to form sentences when it was about her own dreams. Each time she told that to her parents, they made fun of her ambition, for they have already set the path for their daughter, she was expected to follow them. At least, Marinette and Adrien did not laugh at her idea.

There was no reason for her not to trust her two classmates, they have both been more than helpful. But she idolized those charity workers for so long and then she met an actual girl a classmate of hers who apparently worked for charities. She was so excited to share a classroom with such a girl and now these two kids told her that it was all a lie? She could not believe that. There must have been some misunderstanding.

“She is doing all that already.” She said the last sentence in a tone that revealed she did not believe those words any more.

“She is not.” Adrien shook his head.

“She is lying.” Marinette added.

Hannah slumped her shoulders down.

“She is not telling the truth?” Adrien tried. “She does not work for charities.” The boy continued.

Hannah stared at the boy then at Marinette and then at her feet.

“Just, please, stay away from Lila? Be careful what you tell her?” Marinette pleaded.

Hannah could accept that. She would not go after Lila, if she was a liar, there was no point, and if she was not a liar, Hannah would be selfish to ask for her attention, to ask for anything more than she already had. Then she remembered the words of her mother. It might look as if she wanted to be friends with Lila only to gain something from her charities again.

“I won’t ask her for anything. I promise. My family got enough. We can do it on our own.” The girl spoke quietly but with building up her self-confidence. She looked them straight in their eyes.

“Okay, so you will not tell that you stole Alya’s phone.” Adrien concluded. He wanted to make sure they understood each other and that Hannah was not going to do something stupid.

Hannah looked uncertain. She should have said nothing to her friends. She had to leave friends before, friends have left her before with no explanation and no goodbye. Why did she try and say anything?

“Hannah, what does she have against you?” Marinette demanded.

“I lied.” It was over, she was going to get expelled. At least she had this chance to admit everything to her friends. She owed them that much. She owed them the truth.

“What have you lied about?” Adrien asked quietly. He was going to give her the benefit of the doubt, besides he knew some of her secrets he learned as Chat Noir, he might not be surprised.

“My birth certificate.” Hannah sighed. “My parents and brothers are refugees, but I am not. I was born in Paris, twelve years ago. But I am not a citizen of France. I am not a citizen of any country.”

“But … but that is even worse?” Adrien clearly remembered the argument from the last week. That was it? He was confused. He honestly did not know if that was a big deal or not.

“But your family is, you should be too.” This was not making any sense to Marinette. She remembered the argument she overheard as Ladybug. This was not completely new to her.

“It is not that simple.” Hannah deflated. She clearly remembered the long, exhaustive and convoluted procedure that was needed, the uncertain outcome and her resolve not to bother her parents with it. They were both too busy treating other sick people to be engulfed in strange legal limbo that she was caught in.

“Listen, we are going to help you. Okay?” The boy spoke. He had no idea how, but he was determined to help her. He had no plan, but he certainly hoped that Marinette would have one.

“You are not going to be expelled.” Marinette added with her Ladybug determination. She was certain that there was some way to keep the girl there.

“You did not steal Alya’s phone, okay?” Adrien finished.

“Okay.” Hannah replied timidly. There was hope, these two kids were giving her hope. She faced similar situations before, when she learned her citizenship was denied, when her application for sanctuary was refused, when she fled her home, and shelter, and the city she grew up in. Each time she found a way out, or her father did, or her mother did, and they remained together, as a family, alive and together, which was more than many could say for themselves. So she was going to go through this too.

There was a moment of silence when the three of them smiled at each other.

“We are late for art class already.” Marinette noticed.

Hannah was going through her locker looking for something.

“You should have told me Lila threatened you.” Adrien scolded gently. “I wish you told me.”

“Nobody believed anything I said that day.” Marinette shrugged.

“I did.” Adrien replied quietly. “I would have believed you if you told me.”

Marinette was trying to get her thoughts together, Adrien was close and she felt his breath on her ear and her hair.

“I’m ready.” Hannah held a piece of paper in her hands.

“Um.” Marinette tried to remember what was she supposed to be ready for.

“Don’t you need your sketchbook?” Adrien asked Marinette. She just looked at the boy wide eyes. “For your art class.”

“Oh yes, the art class, right!” She opened her locker and looked inside.

Adrien eyed the paper Hannah was holding and asked if he could read it. It was an invitation to visit the community centre at 5 PM this Friday to enjoy some music and paintings and possibly donate (purchase a few paintings or other objects produced there).

“Do you have more of these?” Adrien asked quickly and pointed to the flyer. That was after his fencing and he hoped the rest of his schedule could be adjusted. Hannah nodded and left him the paper while she fetched another one.

“I can’t find my sketchbook.” Marinette whined.

“Perhaps it is in your backpack?” Adrien asked.

Only then Marinette realized her backpack was, well, on her back. She checked it, and yes, of course, her sketchbook was there.

“Can anyone come?” Adrien asked and pointed to the paper. Hannah nodded to reply.

“Are you going to be okay?” Marinette asked Hannah.

“Yes.” Hannah confirmed. She did not know how to explain, she got used to the life of continuous threat. “These things happen all the time.” She shrugged. Marinette raised her eyebrows. Adrien did not believe her either.

“I’m not okay, but I’m used to not being okay that it is okay for me.” She stammered out. That was more believable. Marinette could definitely relate, she could summarize her life since she became Ladybug and the Guardian in a similar way. Adrien wondered if he could apply the same for himself some days.

On their way through the hallway, Adrien elaborated a plan do disregard any claims that Lila might have. He was certain he hid a jackpot with the like Lila used to get Marinette back to school. Hannah felt better with each step, another disaster averted, a few friends on her way and everything was far more bearable. Marinette, she was on cloud nine, Adrien spoke to her animatedly, he smiled, he nudged her shoulder with his own, he would lay his arm over her shoulders and the girl was lost in her dreams that involved a house, three kids and a hamster. He had to point to both girls that they have reached the art room before he proceeded further to his own music activities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, Hannah partially feels as if she deserves such treatment.   
> I was without citizenship for several years but I did not live in France at the time.


	33. Friends Will Be Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little bit of friendly introspective thoughts and yes there should be an akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not hate Alya, I like her character, the lies she bought here are more believable than what she trusted in canon.

Friends will be friends

When Adrien got to the music room, the students were mostly already setting up their instruments and headphones while the teacher was overseeing their efforts. The boy went straight to the teacher to produce an excuse for being little late to the class, but the teacher was far more interested in the advertisement Adrien held in his hands. The teacher read the invitation out loud for everyone to hear and decided to advertise it on the school page, then she remembered how she instructed several students in the same centre over the holidays, and few of them were talented musicians.

Hannah entered the art room and quietly handed over the invitation to the art teacher. It was nothing she would brag about in school. Most of her fellow students were not aware of her status as a refugee and she did not intend to advertise it because she knew she cheated to get it. (The fact that the statelessness of the refugees is not often evaluated nor distinguished was something she never bothered to explain). The recent events only increased her feeling of guilt.

She handed him over the flyer invitation just because he volunteered in the centre during the Summer and on Saturdays. The man was excited. He announced the invitation to everyone. Hannah was feeling slightly insecure about so much advertising, but she did not expect anyone to come on a Friday afternoon. The teacher had literally put her in the spotlight, Alix was the first to promise to come there, while other students agreed slightly less eagerly.

Marinette could see that Hannah was nervous, weather it was for the attention or the recent incident in the locker room was unclear. But Hannah took it all in stride, whatever she felt about it. The girl was quiet, while the teacher was talking, she could not help herself but feel proud and elated at his praise of her work. She took out the paints and the papers and started to paint while the man was talking. She was never good at drawing or painting people, but buildings and landscapes she could do, so she did. She pushed back the threat she received and the concerns she had.

Marinette was on cloud nine. Yes she was worried about Hannah and Lila, yes she was irked about Alya and Nino but … she looked at her hand. Adrien held her hand. He touched her arm, he whispered to that ear, he … She felt Tikki tap her thigh through her purse and shook her head. She had to go back to reality. The sketchbook was sitting opened in front of her. Nathaniel was sitting at the same large desk, from the other side and was very busy drawing up pages of his next comic book. Nobody noticed her blush.

Then her mind went straight back to the park and the way he hugged her and held her. It was so romantic, it was like a dream. She quickly forgot about why that happened and remembered just how warm she felt. And then they held hands. She felt Tikki again and straightened up.

‘It was just a friendly gesture, nothing more.’ She scolded herself internally, straightened up, took a firm grip on her pen and focused on the empty page in her sketchbook.

She was trying to get an idea for her next creation, honestly, she was, but her mind brought her back to the moments she shared with Adrien, his green eyes, the warmth of his breath, the way he held her. Tikki patted her thigh again.

‘Nope, nope, nope’ She scolded herself again. Luka and Kagami were right there. It was them who initiated the conversation, there was nothing romantic involved. They were just good friends. Good friends hug all the time, and hold hands apparently, and are protective of each other, yeah, it was just a normal friendly reaction between two friends who had a friendly conversation between friends and the friendly favours they secretly did to each other because they were friends. Right.

Besides, on their way to school and later, there were no romantic statements, no declarations of love, nothing like that, just two friends who cared about each other and were protecting a girl from a bully, yeah, there was nothing special going on over there. She felt Tikki bounce in her shoulder bag and patted back. Someone might notice.

The empty page was staring at her.

Marinette was holding a green pen.

Everyone else around the art classroom was busy and the teacher was focused on Hannah as if he felt the girl might use more moral support that day.

Marinette took in a deep breath and began to doodle around on a sheet of paper on the desk. Then she remembered Kagami and how the girl encouraged her to finally talk to Adrien. Kagami was right. The four of them were friends and friends talked about such stuff to each other. Friends did not keep secrets from each other, at least not such secrets, and she did not have secrets, save she was Ladybug. But friends should share such information with each other. Perhaps Kagami did not have many friends but she knew the right thing to do. Marinette smiled, yes, Kagami knew what was the right thing to do. And she never hesitated to do it.

Tikki was restless in her shoulder bag. Well, Marinette swiftly let her have a cookie while she never looked at her bag, she was too concerned someone might notice.

Marinette began to draw something that Kagami might wear. Or, at least, in Marinette’s imagination. It was inspired by the fencing gear and the skirt Kagami always wore and how were the Samurai usually dressed? She decided to search for pictures on her phone, but there she was met with an alert.

Of course there was an akuma attack. Marinette literally rolled her eyes while she shouted her excuse to the art teacher before she escaped from the art room, while she left her sketchbook on the desk.

Adrien sat himself at a piano and made sure to type a message ask Nathalie to keep his schedule free for Friday afternoon after fencing. She was not happy about it and required more information about his planned activities for the period. Adrien sighed and took a photo of the flyer. She was still not happy about it, but then she decided to talk to his father and give it a chance since it was charity and possibly a good place for promotion. Well, Adrien doubted it was a good place for promotion and he was not going to be allowed to go, but he could hope. Besides it was just after fencing, there was a chance for him to just escape with Kagami. He sent the same picture of an invitation to Kagami and finally laid his hands on the piano. The teacher had just finished with her talk and the students resumed their activities. (It never occurred to him that such invitations on Friday afternoons might be interpreted as dates).

The boy played a gentle melody and thought about the day he spent at Liberty. Would he be able to invent a melody for Luka? Him and Kagami made a nice surprise for the lunch break and he was really glad they came. They were great friends. He was really glad he talked with Marinette. What he learned made him feel warm inside. She helped him go back to school. She somehow negotiated that with his father. It must have been a feat. How did she do that? What strategy did she have? It must have been some smart piece of conversation. He wanted to ask some more, perhaps he could use the same tactics.

He was playing some melody he knew by heart. The teacher was not very keen on directing him to more serious and technically demanding pieces. She was too busy fixing up something in the corner.

Then he remembered Kagami. He was concerned that the girl was going to be akumatized once she saw the photos from his photo shoot with Lila. So he warned her in advance. It was a brief message, but it served its purpose. He never forgot how Kagami got akumatized once she saw the photo of Lila kissing his cheek.

He switched to a different melody and at the thought of Lila hit a wrong chord.

The teacher raised her eyes.

He smiled his perfect model smile, shrugged and continued playing.

Yes, Kagami was spending more time with him and his friends. He was glad. She was a good friend. And she liked him, he knew she did, the problem was he loved Ladybug and he could not bring himself to date Kagami and be her boyfriend if he had such strong feelings for another girl. Even if she told him that they could not be together just because they were superheroes. What a stupid reason was that?

Wait? She did not tell him she had no feelings for him, it was just because they were superheroes, right? That meant … that meant … he smiled to himself. His Lady cared for him, she told him that much. But they could not be together. He wanted to move on, but now he had such a nice group of friends that he did not want to spoil it.

Kagami was very competitive when it came to fencing. Was she that competitive about everything else? He had no idea. It reminded him of how Marinette was competitive about video games. If he only could make them compete each other, that would be a show. But what would they compete in? It would be unfair if it was the fencing, Kagami was just too good. Video games would be unfair to Kagami, probably, he actually never asked if she played and consequently did not know if she was any good. Well, if she played, she probably swept the floor with any opponent. She was just like that.

He tried to repeat the melody he heard Luka play for Kagami in the park, but it did not flow so naturally.

How was Luka doing that? The boy probably spent hours with his guitar each day. Well, Adrien was made to spend hours with his piano each day too. He began to feel like a failure. The same way he felt when he played video games against Marinette. But, he did not really spend all those hours on the piano, he more often than not played his performance from his stereo and vaulted out from his room.

Adrien felt his kwami toss and turn in his shirt. Yeah, he forgot to feed the tiny glutton during the lunch break. He felt guilty. He patted his shirt to calm the tiny god of destruction, but the cat kept moving. The boy became nervous, what if someone noticed his shirt was moving, he might reveal himself, and to reveal himself just because his kwami was hungry would be a really stupid mistake.

Adrien sneaked out from the music room and was overwhelmed by the silence he met in the hallway. The music room was almost sound proof and he was not aware of how much noise they often made while they practised (well most of the students did use instruments with headphones but he used piano that day and Ivan used drums while some other student was practising his trombone). He was running towards the locker room when he remembered to check his phone and see if he got a decision from Nathalie. But there he found the akuma alert.

Ladybug was on the rooftop of Francoise Dupont and instantly knew she was in trouble. The people in the streets were standing still. The same way they stood when they got stung by one of the little wasps created by the Queen Wasp, or similarly the Miracle Queen after that. According to the information she had, the akuma was active for some time already. She was so worried that she jumped straight for her home to check if she still had the miracle box. She was so scared that somehow Hawk Moth learned her identity and got the box while she was too busy talking to Adrien in the park. She felt so guilty. Having a teenage crush was a luxury she could not afford. She was Ladybug.

She was wary of any tiny wasps that might be flying around ready to sting her and make her immobilized like the rest of the humans she saw in the streets. She also looked around very carefully and made sure that each chimney was only a chimney and there was no Hawk Moth or Mayura hiding behind it. She landed on her balcony and went straight through the hatch door. She expected her parents were either immobilised or hidden somewhere downstairs in the bakery, so she went straight for the miracle box.

It was there, stored in the same trunk where she kept all those gifts for Adrien. All the wrappings stared at her. Those were the gifts for Adrien that she was never going to give him, at least not as his girlfriend, perhaps as his friend? She shook her head. She had no time for that.

She opened the miracle box and the comb was staring back at her. The comb was there. Of course it was there. As soon as she saw the box she should have known that all the miracoulous should be inside. Well all save four of them. She took out the dragon miracoulous and the bracelet for the snake miraculous. She might as well call in for help. Because water created by the dragon was always good way to fight those nasty tiny wasps, and having a second chance would be useful.

But now she had to find Luka and Kagami. Hawk Moth knew the identities of both Ryuko and Viperion so it was dangerous to use them. Perhaps she should find the akuma first. She never saw those tiny wasps ever since the akuma attack had started. And where was that black cat?

She stood on a rooftop nearby and scanned the surroundings. It looked eerily quiet, nobody was moving. The people stood still in the streets, in their cars and on the buses.

Ladybug opened her yoyo with an intention to call Chat Noir when he landed by her side.

“Good afternoon My Lady.” He greeted and startled her slightly. But she played it off as if she was not completely surprised by his actions and did her best to act cool.

“Hello Chaton.” She replied while she put her yoyo back on her hip.

He was not fooled, he was rather aware he sneaked up to her and grinned his signature crooked grin, but she put an index finger over her mouth to silence him. He wasn’t sure if she actually heard anything or she did it just to avoid his teasing, but just as he was about to tease her anyway, he heard some noise. And then he knew she did not hear them before he did, because it was him who grabbed her, turned her around and pointed to the direction of the incoming danger. If she wanted him silent, he definitely had an excuse to put his hands on her shoulders a bit.

Ladybug was ready for a surprise attack of a flock of angry wasps, but not the fact that it was definitely not Chloe who was akumatized. The akuma was obviously a man, an adult man, who was dressed in black business suit with several yellow stripes and had wings of his own, so he fluttered in the air and directed the wasps.

They quickly leaped off the roof and hid in a shade of a shop entrance.

“It is just an akuma.” Ladybug whispered relieved that it was not another attack from akumatized Chloe. She was always difficult to beat.

“Yeah, it usually is, My Lady?” Chat Noir could not hide his surprise at her comment.

“Ugh, I thought it was another Miracle Queen.” Ladybug whispered. “I even picked up spare miraculous for Ryuko and Viperion.”

“Are you sure it is safe, now that Hawk Moth knows their identities?” Chat Noir inquired.

“It is not.” Ladybug concluded. “But we can’t look for new wielders and we could really use Ryuko and Viperion for this.”

“Okay, so I can look for K… Ryuko and you will go for Viperion?” Chat proposed.

Ladybug almost agreed to the proposal, but then she changed her mind.

“No, you take the bracelet and give it to L… Viperion!” She corrected herself. “Beware of Hawk Moth and Mayura around. If you notice anything suspicious, merge the powers.”

Chat nodded, that made sense and was much safer. On the other hand, he knew where to look for Kagami at that time of the day. But he was not sure if he could tell that to Ladybug without giving a hint about his identity. He would not mind if she knew his identity but only if he was allowed to keep his miraculous after that. And he had some doubts after the whole Kwamibuster incident.

Ladybug remembered where she could find Luka, it was always the same route he took each day before he appeared in the bakery for the first time after the school finished. However, how to explain that to Chat without revealing at least one bit about her civilian self?

“Um, we could go together?” Chat proposed. Ladybug agreed much faster than he expected and soon they were going in the direction where he knew he would find Kagami. But Ladybug was leading, why was she leading in that direction? Were they going to find Kagami first? Did Ladybug know where to find Kagami?

Ladybug noticed Luka’s bicycle first.

Chat Noir noticed Kagami’s weapon laying in the grass first.

And then they saw them both. Luka and Kagami were under a tree, frozen stiff in place, Luka in mid motion of strumming his guitar. Kagami was smiling.

They both stared at the scene for a moment too long.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir!” The shout came from afar but they could barely hear it over the noise of many tiny wasps that were circling around them.

“Longg, Tikki unite!” Ladybug shouted at the same moment when Chat Noir called for Sass and Plagg to unite.

Chat Snake started the five minute count instantly.

The akuma hovered above them.

Ladybug called for water dragon to protect them from the tiny wasps. That also separated them from the akuma. Then Chat noticed them. Hawk Moth was hiding behind a chimney while Mayura stood on top of it and launched her fan. The fan passed through the water wall, but Chat deflected it with his staff. Ladybug knew this was a trap. Both villains were waiting for her as they expected she was going to look for them. But there was no going back, at least not for more than thirty seconds.

“Huh, Chat, I should have known, I should have expected this, we could have both transformed back there and simply fought off the akuma.” She was starting to doubt her own decisions. And it was not the time to get desperate.

“Hey” Chat cooed. “Why don’t you try a little bit of luck?” He suggested.

She called for her lucky charm and got a spoon.

The rest of their first five minutes they spent studying the akuma and trying to determine what was the akumatized object.

And the next five minutes too.

It was the last five minutes that revealed that the man had a slightly violet glow to his belt and his wings were apparently attached to it.

Then they started with attacks at the akuma. Ladybug was the one leading after the akuma and she wrapped her yoyo around him to pull him closer.

Chat deflected the fan from Mayura using his staff.

Each time Ladybug got stung, Chat restarted the five minute count.

Finally, the two heroes found themselves surrounded as both Hawk Moth and Mayura jumped into the protective water cocoon after Ladybug managed to trap the akuma together with the two heroes.

Chat and Hawk Moth were having a fight with his cane and his staff. Mayura threw her fan at Ladybug and she finally saw it red with black spots. She threw the spoon in it and changed its direction so it went straight for the akuma. The fan cut the wings from the belt and the belt fell apart and released a violet butterfly. Ladybug knew this was just one villain less and they still had two more to fight, but she had to catch the butterfly and purify it so she launched her yoyo and caught the butterfly.

Mayura caught the fan and held the spoon that was Ladybug’s lucky charm in her hand. She took the spoon out and threw the fan again. Ladybug pulled Chat down so both of them ducked below the fan.

“You are going to detransform any moment now.” Hawk Moth teased. And it was the truth. Ladybug used the lucky charm and the water dragon so long ago. Chat used the second chance almost five minutes ago.

But it was Ladybug who threw herself at him and went after his pin. Chat deflected one more attack from Mayura with the lyre and then launched it far away with his staff. Both miraculi that Ladybug was wearing announced her last minute. Chat threw himself at Mayura, he was going for the brooch, but she evaded his blows with ease.

Chat went after the brooch but Mayura moved aside swiftly so he caught the spoon more by accident than intentionally. He barely managed to deflect her next attack while he threw the spoon to Ladybug. She and grabbed the spoon with one hand while she launched another attack with her sword at Hawk Moth again, it was yet another futile attempt to grab his pin. She deflected his attacks easily due to her speed and fought back using the sword that she had due to dragon miraculous, but she was not so skilled in fencing as Hawk Moth.

Chat was worried. According to his calculation she would transform at any moment. He grabbed her and vaulted them both high in the air. She threw the spoon in the air and called for the miraculous cure while they were still raising. He lost the snake transformation first. But they were reaching over a nearby rooftop. The swirl of Ladybugs was washing around them. Ladybug was loosing the dragon transformation. They landed in the alley and Chat let her down to stand on the ground with his eyes already closed. He was turning around when the pink light washed over their hiding spot.

“I’m not looking, Ladybug.” Chat warned.

Marinette took in a deep breath. “It is my duty to watch then.” She whispered. She gave a cookie to Tikki. She knew that if Hawk Moth and Mayura followed they would soon be found. And the villains knew she was going to loose her transformation very soon. She hid in a small alcove that lead to a back door of some cafe so she could not be seen from the rooftops. She found some food for Sass and Longg.

Meanwhile, Mayura was searching for her weapon and Hawk Moth was catching his breath. It took them just a bit of time before they followed the two heroes over the same rooftop.

“You can go.” Marinette offered. “you can keep the bracelet until this evening.”

“No” Chat replied resolutely. “You are a civilian now.”

Marinette looked at Tikki. The tiny red goddess needed more time.

“Okay, you can open your eyes, just don’t look in here.” She pulled one green trash can and hid behind it. Chat followed after her. Both were hidden just in time to avoid being seen by the two villains that jumped over the alley.

“Bug?” Chat called gently as he sat on the other side of the trash can and watched Sass eat.

“Yes?” She replied quietly.

“This was a trap.” He concluded.

“Yes it was.” She nodded tiredly. “Because Hawk Moth and Mayura know their identities.”

“Yes.” Chat confirmed. “But there is one hero whose identity Hawk Moth did not learn.” He was thinking about suggesting to Ladybug to use Multimouse again.

“You mean Aspik?” She sighed. She knew who was the only hero Chat could possibly propose and she wanted to avoid the subject.

“No” Chat flinched, but she could not see that. “Who’s Aspik?” He added for good measure. He was not supposed to know, right?

“Um, he wielded the snake miraculous during Desperada, but he gave it up for Viperion, he had many failed attempts, too many.” Her voice quivered slightly as she remembered how sad and exhausted Adrien was. Marinette was cautious. She was not sure if she should reveal Adrien’s name to Chat.

“Sounds like a failure to me.” Chat shook his head.

“No” Marinette protested. “We failed, Aspik and me, because we missed you Chat.” She said it so that he did not know if he was praised for his worth or scolded for his absence, it was probably a little bit of both.

“My Lady, are you saying you could not have won against that akuma without your humble cat?” Chat could not help himself.

Marinette snorted and then rolled her eyes. Leave it to Chat to blow up his ego on just about anything she’d say.

“Yeah, humble is the first word that comes up when one sees you.” She teased.

“Actually, I was not thinking about Aspik.” Chat continued. He wanted to add ‘I did not even know who he was until you told me’, but it was such a lie, and it was not even needed, unless she insisted, that he avoided it. “I was thinking about Multimouse.”

“No” Marinette cut him off as soon as he started to pronounce the name of her other alter ego.

“Why not?” Chat protested. “They don’t know her identity, only me and you know her.”

He was looking high up, perhaps he was checking the rooftops for Hawk Moth and Mayura, perhaps he was exasperated, it did not matter.

“She is so clumsy and careless, she revealed herself so openly, and it wasn’t just you, it was Ms Mendeleev too.” Marinette panicked. She needed more excuses and she needed them fast.

“She is not, she was awesome, she was great, she helped us so much, and she managed to keep her identity from Hawk Moth and Mayura.” Chat protested.

Marinette looked at Tikki with desperate eyes. She wanted her to finish just to stop this conversation. Tikki finally relented. She ate enough.

Chat wanted to say more nice things about Marinette. “She helped against Evilustrator too, even without a miraculous. And other akuma too ...”

“How many times did you have to save her from an akuma?” Marinette demanded and then called for her transformation. She was so annoyed that she entirely forgot that maybe she needed an explanation for how she knew that, because Ladybug was not exactly present while Chat Noir was saving Marinette from an akuma.

“It doesn’t matter.” Chat replied softly. He did not mind saving Marinette from an akuma, even if the akuma was after her, even if she accidentally caused an akuma. He did not even notice the pink flash behind his back. Ladybug walked over to the other side of the dumpster and looked up carefully before she turned her face towards Chat. He was already on his feet when he noticed she was up one her feet.

They bumped their fists, searched around for Hawk Moth and Mayura for one bit, then they returned to the park to console the akumatized victim, but they were barely able to wave the man, he was already surrounded by news reporters, Alya included.

Then they both turned to Kagami and Luka. The two were standing under the same tree and were speaking quietly.

“Our plan worked.” Chat could hear what Luka was talking. “But you pushed her too hard. Alya is pushing her all the time.” Luka was not keen on making Marinette and Adrien a couple, he just did not want such big secrets in their group. Nope, he did not think of them as a group of just friends.

“I want to talk to her and hear what happened next.” Kagami replied determinedly.

“Don’t push her.” Luka urged gently. He clearly remembered the poster above Marinette’s bed that he saw when he put the girl to sleep there. Adrien climbed there after him, but he did not know or pretended that he did not see or understand what that meant, especially the heart shape on it. Luka knew then that Marinette was not ready to let go of the other boy and he decided not to push her in any direction.

“I won’t.” Kagami replied with a knowing smirk. “You know that is not why I did it.”

Chat’s cat ears were twitching as he eavesdropped to the brief conversation before the duo spotted the two superheroes and went silent. Ladybug walked over. Kagami noticed the choker on Ladybug’s neck and Luka noticed the bracelet on Chat’s wrist.

“We were looking for you.” Chat spoke with a cheeky grin while he gave his best catwalk on his approach.

Ladybug glared for a bit at Chat for his behaviour.

“But Hawk Moth and Mayura set a trap for us.” She added.

“That is okay, we both got stung.” Luka shrugged.

“Thank you for trusting us Ladybug.” Kagami finished.

The heroes realized that they did not even need to tell the rest of the speech. Everything was understood. So both of them went their separate ways and detransformed.

If Adrien was missed for being late from school, nobody complained. He found his driver playing video games on his phone in the car in front of the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's complicated.


	34. She needs help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly friendly talks and actually useful ideas from adults?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first instinct was to drop few parts of this chapter, but some parts later might be a bit rushed. So it is long ... longer than planned.

Hannah knew that one day it will become known what she did, it was never a permanent solution, she only hoped that her family and her herself would somehow have already settled their legal status. In the locker room, Marinette explained that Lila used some strange illness that made her lie as an excuse for framing Marinette and getting her expelled. Then Adrien concluded this meant nobody should believe Lila. But what if someone went and checked the facts? Surely, someone would. That lady in the library checked the data without blinking (fortunately not her citizenship status). It was bound to happen. But there was nothing she could have done. As much as it was making her desperate, there was nothing else to do but hope for the best. Because if she admitted the theft, she would have been expelled, and probably prosecuted, and then the authorities would find out anyway.

So Hannah concentrated on her painting. The teacher persuaded her to just let her feelings out. So she did. The ruined buildings. The ruined lives. She let all the despair and helplessness be out there, shown, flashed and advertised for the world to see. Not that anyone was ever going to see them. Who would ever want to see that. It was just an activity to make her feel better about herself. It was a good thing that paper could be recycled.

The teacher advertised the event in the community centre and praised her work, although she was now old enough to be well aware that she had no special talent, it was just the fact that she had some practise. She considered herself lucky that the man never mentioned her status too.

She heard that there was an akuma attack going on and frankly, she felt relieved. Marinette left, she babbled some excuse before she ran away. Some people were like that. It was okay to be scared of an akuma and it was okay to run away into a shelter. Hannah was glad, because the akuma attack meant her brothers were going to stay in school a bit longer, until it was all over. So Hannah was able to stay in the art room a bit longer. And she really wanted that. She probably needed that too.

Rose stayed a bit longer, even after the art class was finished. She was in the middle of writing words for some song and the art teacher decided to leave her alone.

Alix was finished with her most recent mural, took photos, posted them on social media, but then she was not in the mood to go outside in the middle of an akuma attack, so she simply took out her homework and started working on it, nobody would send her home in the middle of an akuma attack..

Nathaniel probably never noticed that classes were finished. He was so consumed in drawing his next comic book that he even missed Marc showing up when the class finished.

The art teacher let them all stay in school until the akuma attack was finished. Hannah sighed. She was ready to leave and face the world. Well, to pick up her brothers, go home and face homework and laundry. She was probably going to fall asleep in that basement. It made her feel shivers down her spine. But then she remembered the surprise visit from a week ago and smiled. Well, she might as well do her homework while down there.

Then the art teacher noticed that Marinette forgot her sketchbook. He gave it the utmost importance. So the sketchbook was really important to her classmate. Hannah volunteered to take it to the bakery. The art teacher let her have the book with a fatherly smile and Hannah padded away tiredly.

Hannah went to get her brothers first. They kept teasing and picking on each other. It was tiring, but she was so tired that she rather successfully ignored their behaviour and proceeded to stop at the bakery before going home. The boys were the picture perfect of politeness the moment they entered the bakery. The prospect of getting some treats was sufficient.

Sabine had a huge happy smile when she saw the three of them. Then she had a huge worried smile when she saw Hannah’s face. The girl left the sketchbook, said something barely comprehensible and got a small bag of freshly baked croissants for the way home with a promise for more after they close the bakery. Marinette appeared from the bakery kitchen. The girl was out of breath as if she was running from somewhere and not as if she spent the whole akuma attack at home.

Hannah nibbled on one piece of pastry on their way through the park. Her brothers annihilated the rest. Hannah found her father home, he was sleeping to be able to endure his night shift and was woken up by his three kids.

“Papa, one of my classmates is a pathological liar.” Hannah informed her father.

“Oh yes?” Her father was merely entertained, not really worried. But when Hannah repeated the description of all the lies from Lila (she excluded the threat) and whatever Adrien told her, her father changed his expression.

“That is not my area, dear, and neither it is your mothers, but I’d say the girl needs serious treatment. Where is she getting help?” The man was concerned.

Hannah shrugged.

“Is she getting any help?” The man rephrased his question.

Hannah shrugged again. She was too tired to actually reply.

“Well, she needs help, obviously.” Her father told. “But it is not me, the school should require it for her if her parents did not do it already.”

Hannah thanked for the advice. Of course she was going to help her classmate. Then Lila was going to be so grateful that she was not going to give away the stuff about citizenship and everything was going to be hunky dory. Yes, the girl had a plan, it was as perfect and foolproof as all her plans, it meant she might just pull through, but that was enough for Hannah to be happy.

She picked up the laundry, her homework and a pillow. She took out her French homework, a piece of news to be written in archaic French. She remembered how the teacher gushed over some words that Hannah noted as exquisite and polite. Well, she had to choose a piece of news to translate, nothing too long and something that actually used the words she learned that day. But the most recent news feed was about the akuma attack. The girl was soon sleeping next to the comforting rumble of the washing machine. She dreamed of Nadia Chamack giving news dressed as one of the ladies on the court of Louis XIV about the akuma attack in the ancient, archaic, exquisite and polite words while the action in the background was cruel and gruesome.

After the akuma fight, Ladybug let Chat keep the bracelet. She was returning quickly back to school, the classes were finished and she left all her things in school. But then she saw Hannah walk along a street with her two brothers just behind her, her head low and a very familiar sketchbook in her arms.

Ladybug frowned at first. Why was Hannah carrying her sketchbook around? But then she noticed where the girl was going, of course. She practically sleepwalked into the bakery. Ladybug detransformed in her room and ran downstairs. Tom packed some pastries as thanks, Sabine scolded her daughter gently for being so airheaded and Hannah just smiled tiredly. Marinette sputtered some excuse how she forgot her sketchbook of all things and waited patiently for Hannah and her brothers to leave. The boys were much more timid once they got some food in their hands. Then she had to wait for another customer to leave, it was a rather talkative and demanding lady who really liked her macarons to be arranged in a box in a particular colour scheme. And then Marinette inhaled to tell her mother how she was worried about her classmate but another customer arrived.

Marinette thought she was never going to have an opportunity to tell her parents about Hannah’s sleepless nights and an absence of citizenship and the threat, because the afternoon rush hour did not earn its name due to the absence of customers in the best bakery in Paris. The girl refused to go upstairs to deal with her homework, mostly because she still had to transform and fetch her backpack from school. She dutifully packed boxes to help her parents (and destroyed a few specimens in the process, but who cared).

Marinette was checking the bakery door expectantly. She expected a boy with a girl on his bicycle. She just saw both of them in the park and it was reasonable to assume they would come together. Actually, when she checked the time, it was rather long time ago. Where were they? And then, to her disappointment, the boy walked into the bakery alone. Luka picked the boxes up without too many words and went away to deliver stuff because he was already running late. He studied her face carefully as if he wanted to read what happened between her and Adrien that afternoon. But there was nothing to see, nothing happened. Marinette was slightly disappointed that the boy did not deliver Kagami to the bakery first, but she could only ask for so much, right?

“I’m worried about your new classmate.” Sabine mentioned while she flipped the sign to closed.

“She spent the whole night studying with her mother and Lila wants her expelled from school.” Marinette blurted out.

Tom stood in the door frame with a raised eyebrow.

Sabine was seriously considering if her daughter was cracking under pressure of the high school education.

Then Marinette took a deep breath and explained the situation briefly using slightly more words.

“Oh, Lila is getting ill again.” Sabine mentioned compassionately.

Marinette wanted to explode, but decided to save that energy for a situation when the culprit was actually present.

“It is really bad to suffer from an illness like that.” Tom added gently. “I’m really glad you care, Marinette. I’m sure you’ll find a way to help Lila.”

The girl stared at her own father as if he had grown a second head and a slimy monster jumped out of his belly. Because there was no way that her father suggested for her to get help for Lila after everything she just told. It was Hannah who needed books for her mother, and sleep, and French.And legal help. And … Oh, if she really needed that much help, perhaps she did go way above her head into this. But Marinette was the class president, and she loved helping people, especially her classmates, she even helped Chloe, but she couldn’t help Lila, that girl did not need help, that girl needed expert psychiatrist to deal with whatever condition she had because whatever that was it should not be considered normal, it was damaging for the society. And as a class president, it was her duty to secure such help.

“Papa, you are a genius.” Marinette exclaimed and hugged her huge father and kissed him on the cheek.

They quickly packed a box of pastries and Marinette was leaving the bakery when she rain into Kagami. This time the girl arrived on her own, she was waiting for Marinette in the park close to the bakery.

Back in the time before the akuma attack, Kagami enjoyed her ‘free time’ as usual, she was doing a scheduled exercise in her full gear using the traditional sword in the park. Only her mother was not present at the moment, she had an afternoon business meeting and Kagami was going through her routine on her own.

Luka was doing his usual round of deliveries, he was rather quick that day, the last delivery was just on the edge of the park where Kagami often exercised with her mother. Maybe he made it his last delivery on that round slightly intentionally. The boy noticed his friend completely engrossed in her routine. He stood there and watched from afar for a few minutes until he got the idea. He caught the rhythm and the choreography of the routine and sneaked up to the girl while her back was turned only to surprise her when she turned back. Both the boy and his guitar were flying from his bicycle. He caught the guitar and saved it from further damage, but he did hit the ground hard, fortunately it was just grass, not concrete.

Kagami stood there for just a moment. She was surprised by the boy, more than anything, but then she realized she was not moving, in her own eyes, she hesitated. So she dropped her sword and jumped over to the boy to check if he was okay. But the boy was laughing and she started to laugh with him.

“Sorry.” Kagami stated more to be polite, she was having fun.

“It is fine.” Luka replied with a smile. “It was my fault anyway.”

Luka was checking his guitar and strummed a few chords.

“Can you really feel everyone's melody?” Kagami was curious.

“Mostly, if I want, if we spend enough time together.” Luka started to play a tune.

“I like that one, I heard you play that the other day, well it was weeks ago, when we were all having ice cream from Andre.” Kagami was listening and speaking quietly.

“This one is for Marinette.” Luka replied and carefully observed the reaction from Kagami. The girl blushed. Luka seemed satisfied with that. “Are you okay with what we did today. I mean, what if the two of them decide to be a couple?”

Kagami changed her expression to a complete determination as she looked at the boy straight into his eyes.

“She was so noble to walk away and let me share the ice cream with Adrien. I can do the same for her, I am descendent of a long line of nobility, I am not going to underperform in that field.” Kagami stated as a mere fact. Luka thought she was finished but she raised one hand to get his attention and placed the other hand over his ankle. “You were so noble to watch Marinette confess her love for Adrien to a tablet.” She continued. Luka smiled sheepishly. They had that conversation the day before while he was driving her around on his bicycle. It was a challenge for her, she had to do it, she had to give Marinette that chance, besides, she liked the girl a lot, she wanted to do it, although there was a slight pang of jealousy stinging her each time she thought how the other two of her friends might become a couple. But she pushed it away, she was better than that, she was able to give the two of her friends the time to share their secrets and become closer.

Luka smiled knowingly and continued to play his guitar. He had to admire the girl next to him. She was impatient and ambitious, always eager to tackle the opponent and win, and yet she found the strength to step aside and let her friends resolve their feelings, even if that meant she lost. He could see she was lonely, he could see she needed friends, but she was also able to be on her own, just like he was.

“What about my melody?” Kagami inquired after she let him play the melody for some time.

Luka stopped playing his guitar as if he was listening to some tune to pick it up from the thin air, a piece of music only he could hear. Kagami was waiting patiently.

“Your melody is strong.” Luka replied, but he did not produce any music.

“Would you play it for me?” Kagami pleaded.

Luka was holding his hand just above the strings on the guitar ans watched Kagami carefully. He felt the melody, it was strong and epic, like a melody that would play in a film to accompany an epic battle, but there was a gentle melody hidden underneath, both intertwined. For the first time in his life his hand trembled a little, he did not play a single note.

“Your melody scares me a bit, to be honest.” Luka finally admitted.

The moment was interrupted by wasps.

They woke up to see two villains leaving the park and a confused man who did not know where he was. The boy clearly remembered their conversation just before the wasps came.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir saved us again.” Luka noted as he observed the surroundings.

Kagami was a bit puzzled on what to do next, there was obviously an akuma attack, some time had passed and she checked the time on her phone. She also clearly remembered how Luka admitted he was slightly intimidated by her melody. She wanted to hear more about that. It sounded like a compliment to her.

Luka, on the other hand, praised for initiating the conversation between Adrien and Marinette. He did not want Kagami to turn into Alya, the girl who was constantly pushing Marinette onto Adrien. It was obviously rather frustrating for both girls. And that was not exactly what he wanted anyway. He was rather sure that him and Kagami were on the same page here, but he wanted to make sure. He left for the Dupain Cheng bakery only when the red car without a driver stopped by to pick up Kagami. She was going home to leave her sword, but she told him she was going to visit Marinette later, if her mother let her.

Kagami was waiting in the park, patiently, she did not want to have this conversation in the bakery. Besides, fresh air filled her lungs and slight wind ruffled her hair and she enjoyed her time outside.

“Um, Hi Kagami, I’m taking this to Hannah.” Marinette smiled.

“Hi Marinette.” Kagami greeted politely. “May I join you?”

The two girls started walking in silence.

“ Um so ...” Marinette mumbled out.

“Luka brought me here after he finished with his deliveries. I wanted to see you and talk to you” And she asked him to and after Kagami persuaded he boy that she was not going to do anything to destroy the _lovely_ _friendship_ they had. 

“Okay.” Marinette nodded. She was pleased to see the girl.

“So, Lila hurt you, she got you expelled?” Kagami started speaking  again .

“Yeah.” Marinette felt her heart sink a little bit.

“And Adrien got you back to school.” Kagami concluded.

Marinette hummed the confirmation.

Kagami waited for a few moments before she asked “And?”

Marinette sighed. “And now Lila wants to get Hannah expelled.”

Kagami was expecting to hear if there was any development between the two on the romantic side,  or not, maybe Marinette finally admitted to Adrien that she was in love with him, maybe the boy returned the feelings, or not,  but she did not expect this. So she remained silent and listened to the story about Hannah. Kagami did not know much, but she was ready to use any weapon on the girl. Marinette soon realized that the other girl might become the next akuma so she focused on finding solutions. 

“Um, so after the two of you talked in the park, Adrien and you are ...” Kagami inquired, not at all subtly.

“Friends, just friends, very good friends.” Marinette spoke quickly.

“Huh.” Kagami was not sure if she was exasperated, annoyed or relieved. So Adrien really had no romantic feelings for Marinette, or the girl hesitated again to make it obvious? “He really has no idea, does he?” She finally concluded.  She did not mean to push Marinette onto Adrien nor to make them a couple, but she could not sit still near the other two knowing what they did for each other while they both hid it from each other. It was just … not what she thought friendship was supposed to be. 

The two girls started to laugh. They barely calmed down before they found Hannah asleep on a few boxes in the basement. Her homework was probably safely stored  away and untouched  just like her backpack, the girl was having what she needed the most, and that was sleep.  T he surroundings did not look like something suitable for a healthy nap. Both girls kept taking a step froward or pulling the other back as they were not sure if they should wake up the sleeping girl.  Finally they both decided to stay and talk a bit.

Hannah was woken up by the smell of food. She opened her eyes and found Marinette and Kagami who were speaking.  After greeting, Hannah simply listened to them while the girls were talking about boys and school drama and life.  Hannah was happy to just sit there and listen. 

Then the girls switched the subject to more serious tone of the threat Lila made  earlier that day.  Finally, she collected courage to explain how they needed to help Lila to find help for her psychiatric disorder. Marinette practically threw herself at the girl. Kagami was stoic, but the smirk gave away her mind. She was enjoying this, of course she was, until  she noticed that her free time was about to be finished. The laundry machine was finished, the two girls  left  and  Hannah ascended the stairs  back to her flat.

Once again outside, the two girls first inhaled the fresh air deeply.

“ Um, Adrien invited me for some charity event on Friday afternoon.” Kagami spoke quietly, she did not want to sow discord between friends, but Marinette was okay with her dating Adrien before, so it was probably okay now.

“Okay.” Marinette replied while a slight pang went through her.

“You and Luka could come too?” Kagami continued.

Marinette looked at the other girl and gaped like a fish.

“I … um … Friday afternoon?” She stammered out.

“Yes it is some charity event.” Kagami checked her phone. “In the community centre.”

“Oh yes,” Marinette remembered vaguely, it was something the art teacher announced. “Yes, I’m going there anyway, might as well invite Luka.”

“ Great,  I really like  spending time with you Marinette.” Kagami smiled. They were  walking in the park again. 

“Um yes, me too.” Marinette replied in a strange tone as if she remembered something.

Kagami raised her eyes questioningly, there was something going on.

“What is bothering you?” Kagami demanded.

“It is just, I remembered Alya. She used to be my best friend, but now I can’t even talk to her.” Marinette began her explanation.

Kagami frowned, was Marinette loosing her friends easily.

“She is loosing Nino too, and it is all because of Lila.” Marinette continued.

“Well it is because of her own stupidity.” Kagami cut off.

Marinette felt hurt on behalf of Alya, she could still do that for her friend.

“Lila got a hold on her.” Marinette replied thoughtfully.

“But all those lies, they are so easily checked, and Alya wants to be a journalist.” Kagami countered.

Marinette refused to think that Alya was stupid, she refused to think like that about any of her classmates.

“Yeah, her lies are so easy to see through, but she puts a good act.” Marinette wanted to give the liar the credit mostly because she did not want her friends to look stupid.

“I got akumatized because of her.” Kagami said in disgust, weather she was disgusted with Lila or her own weakness was not clarified and Marinette was not going to ask.

“She lied her way into Adrien’s house.” Marinette said mostly to confirm her claim how persuasive the girl could be.

“ I lied to my mother once, when I played that game with you, and my mother got akumatized.” Kagami replied as a matter of a fact. She made it clear, she seldom used lies. “But then I admitted it and asked her to just let me be with my friends and now I can be.” 

Marinette smiled back. It felt so good to be called someone’s friend although the same word was so annoying when it came as a combination with Adrien. Well, she decided she was happy to be able to call herself Adrien’s friend.

“ So now you can see your friends whenever you want?” Marinette inquired.

“I have my schedule, fencing, practices with my mother, other stuff, but outside of my schedule, if I do everything in time, I can be with my friends, I just have to be home in time for dinner.” Kagami shrugged.

The two were in companionable silence for a while. 

“I can understand why Hannah lied.” Marinette spoke quietly.

“I would probably do the same in her place.” Kagami replied, but then both her and Marinette started to laugh. Knowing Kagami, she would have marched into some office carying a foil, sword or katana in her hand and stormed out with a citizenship papers in her hands, if only those things worked that way.

The red car was waiting for Kagami and Marinette went back home. The dinner was just about to be ready and she felt tired and ready to tackle some homework and land into her bed. She only hoped that Hawk Moth took his sleeping pills that night, because she  had homework and surely wanted some rest too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter brings back Adrien


	35. The Stalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Adrien spent his evening and a glance at Gabriel and Nathalie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprisingly, it is not Marinette stalking Adrien here ...

The Stalker

Adrien detransformed in school and ran out. His bodyguard was killing time playing games on his phone and simply grunted his acknowledgement of the boy entering the car before he started the engine and drove away. The boy was glad that his bodyguard was just happy to see him safe and sound and never inquired about his whereabouts.

“Hey” Adrien called on his bodyguard while the man was driving. Well, to put it more correctly, the man was sitting behind the wheel while the car was stuck in the Parisian afternoon traffic. The afternoon rush hour further congested due to previous akuma attack.

The man grunted back approvingly. It was a sign that Adrien could ask questions.

“Do you have any idea what persons without citizenship can do? What do they do?” The boy asked out loud a few questions of many that passed through his brain. His bodyguard merely shrugged, he had no idea. The boy was puzzled on how to help Hannah. There had to be a way, but he was wary of asking Nathalie or his own father for advice. He knew that the corporation had lawyers who could look into that, but he did not want to share for whom he was asking.

Adrien was not met by Nathalie. Nobody reminded him of his schedule. He was probably expected to practise his Chinese and his piano. Maybe he even had a tutor coming over. He had no idea, nobody told him and he never bothered to memorize. He went to his room and was surprised when the dinner was bought to his room. He was going to have a lonely dinner again? Well his father and Nathalie were probably very busy trying to make up for that ruined photo shoot and probably had plenty of their business problems to deal with so they had no time to have the dinner with him.

“Cheese.” Plagg whined the moment the two of them were alone in the boy’s room. Adrien produced a piece of Camembert as a reflex. The boy chased his food around the ridiculously large plate. He was hungry, but he clearly remembered the pastry he had for lunch and the meal before him suddenly looked far less appetizing.

“I could help you with that cheese, you know.” Plagg offered.

The boy sighed and offered him cheese from his plate while he slowly ate the rest.

“You know, you have other information out there, not just pictures of Ladybug.” Plagg suggested as he tapped one of the computer screens on the boy’s desk. Adrien reluctantly typed something into the search engine. He did find general EU documents and declaration, but they were written in nice legal language that stated the rights rather clearly, but there were no clear instructions on what to do.

‘Of course’ Adrien thought out loud. “If it was that simple, Hannah would have resolved it.”

Plagg hovered in front of the screen and then sat on the boy’s shoulder.

“Is this even French?” The kwami asked pointedly as he cited particularly long and not understandable sentence.

That reminded Adrien of his French homework. He chose an article from the Ladyblog that glorified Ladybug’s beauty and opened his archaic French thesaurus. He was ready. He enjoyed each line of his homework. He was rather satisfied with what he did.

Meanwhile, Hawk Moth and Mayura were having an argument. They searched briefly for Ladybug and Chat Noir but did not dare to venture too far from the park while doing that. They knew already that the teens did not need much time to recharge and they were able to return to the park, get help from Viperion and Ryuko and go after them. So both villains jumped far away before they stopped on a random rooftop, hidden between the chimneys.

“We took too much risk going out like this.” Hawk Moth was not happy.

“We can detransform and call a taxi.” Mayura proposed.

“Gabriel Agreste can not be seen in Parisian public transport.” Hawk Moth cut her off, his back turned away from her, his hands on his back.

“Would you prefer Hawk Moth to be seen entering the Agreste mansion?” Mayura countered.

He flipped around instantly, rage obvious on his face. He did not need to say anything to remind her that both of them actually left the same mansion.

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to … “ Mayura started to apologize, but Hawk Moth cut her off with one swift move of his hand.

“Lingering out here is more dangerous than going to the mansion.” He concluded.

They went back to his lair and detransformed.

“I’m really sorry this plan did not work, sir.” Nathalie bowed her head slightly.

“This plan had worked.” Gabriel replied. “But Ladybug and Chat Noir both wielded the powers of the dragon and the snake before. We need to set the trap that involves other wielders.”

They went to his office and he was going through the pictures on his screen.

“We have established that Ladybug would use the dragon miraculous against an akuma that produces tiny wasps. Too bad the usual akuma is less powerful than Chloe.” The man spoke authoritatively. Nathalie stood there with her tablet, weather or not it was wise to take notes of that.

“And the snake miraculous?” Nathalie inquired.

“That one was just us being lucky.” Hawk Moth continued. “The two of them were together.” Gabriel pondered.

Nathalie frowned at her worksheet.

“We need to go over other heroes and find patterns when Ladybug was using them.” She proposed. “The fox miraculous was used most times so far.”

“Yes, if we replicate one of the akuma where the fox miraculous was used then we can get it.” Gabriel was sliding through the pictures. “Too bad we did not get one of these akuma today. The man really loved bees.”

Nathalie was observing the screen and made notes.

“There is a different issue we should address.” Gabriel continued.

Nathalie raised her eyes from the tablet.

“My son have grown rather fond of Kagami.” The man spoke rather coldly.

“They are doing fencing together.” Nathalie offered as an explanation. “And she was his date for a few official events.”

“Tomoe is my business partner.” Gabriel added. “But today we found her in rather unfortunate circumstances with another boy.”

Nathalie looked puzzled for just a moment before she sighed.

“They were just sitting in a park but if the tabloids got that … “ She did not need to finish her thought and she knew it.

“And her choice of company could be improved.” The man concluded with resentment in his tone.

Nathalie was checking something on her tablet intently.

“He did ask to go for a date with her this Friday.” Nathalie noted.

“Have we approved him dating Mlle Tsurugi?” Gabriel turned towards Nathalie.

“He did ask for permission, it is a charity event after their fencing.” She spoke flatly and never raised her eyes from the screen.

“Tell him it is allowed.” Gabriel replied with a sudden change in demeanour. “I can always change my mind.” He grinned wickedly.

Nathalie raised her yes.

“Mlle Tsurugi was a really useful akuma in the past, on the other hand, fighting her mother required usage of the dragon miraculous.” He concluded.

Nathalie finished her message for Adrien and closed off her tablet.

“Now, about that photo shoot with Mlle Rossi.” Gabriel switched the subject again.

Adrien received the message from Nathalie, he was granted permission to go to the charity event that Friday.

Then the boy noticed message from Nino and first typed back before he called his friend.

“Hey dude.” Nino greeted.

“Hi Nino” Adrien smiled.

“Got some free time?” Nino inquired.

“Yeah, Nathalie forgot to remind me about my schedule.” Adrien made a silly face.

“And you can’t make up your mind if you were supposed to practise piano or Chinese?” Nino grinned.

“Yeah.” Adrien laid back in his chair.

“Well how about we don’t miss out on your education and we listen to my new playlist.” Nino tapped something on his computer and soon both boys enjoyed some distinctly non-classical music.

They chatted and chatted, about music, about Chris, about video games.

“Dude, I’m so happy Chris is making my parents suffer now, he would be nagging me to play games with him.” Nino rolled his eyes.

“Yeah.” Adrien was thoughtful. “But at least you’re not alone when your parents are busy.

“Well, I never saw it that way. I wish I was alone sometimes.” He rolled his eyes because that was the exact moment Chris burst into the room.

Then Adrien reminded Nino about the homework and that was boring enough to finally persuade Chris to go to bed. They did do some homework together while they waited for the boy to fall asleep and then they engaged in a game online with full excitement.

“You know, I could play a game with Chris online, like this, when it is too much for you.” Adrien proposed.

“It is not like you have free time whenever he wants it but I’ll contact you.” Nino smiled.

It was Nino’s parents who demanded from their son to stop the game and go to bed. The boys exchanged their greetings and cut the chat.

Adrien was in his bed and wondered why Ladybug did not want to give the miraculous to Marinette again. They went after Kagami and Luka and it was obviously a trap. But Hawk Moth did not know about Marinette, they could go to her safely. But today’s akuma did not require her power, Ryuko and Viperion would have been more useful. Today, Ladybug and Chat Noir were outnumbered, and that was not good.

“What is bothering you kid?” Plagg inquired and half expected to know both the answer and the solution even before he asked. Adrien was going to whine about his girlfriends or his father and then he was going to run across the rooftops until he was able to fall asleep. As soon as the whole cycle was completed, Plagg was going to get his extra cheese and get to sleep. So the tiny black cat sped up the procedure.

“Why Ladybug doesn’t want to use Marinette as Multimouse?” Adrien asked tiredly. “It makes no sense.”

It made perfect sense to Plagg, but he could not tell the boy. The god of destruction turned away and snickered.

“You know why, don’t you?” Adrien realized the moment he recognized that his kwami was secretly hiding.

“It is just funny to see how much you worry for your girlfriend.” Plagg teased as much for his own satisfaction as to move to a slightly different subject, he knew which button to push.

“She is not my girlfriend.” Adrien retorted, more as a matter of habit, he was not even thinking over the words, it was automatic, weather Marinette or Kagami were involved.

“Right.” Plagg rolled his eyes.

“Look, I just hugged her, she was stressed.” The boy was defending himself. “She could have been akumatized and what would we do then?”

Plagg gulped and there was fear in his eyes, he knew his chosen was exaggerating about the level of distress from lunch break. The boy did not have a clue how much of a disaster that would be.

“And she did so much for me, she got me back to school Plagg!” Adrien grinned dreamily.

Plagg rolled his eyes at his chosen.

“She is really my everyday Ladybug.” Adrien continued. Plagg was glad there was more Camembert left on the plate. He needed to chew something to keep quiet. He wondered if there was sufficient amount of cheese in the mini fridge to survive through the evening without blurting out too much.

“She saved me.” Adrien continued. Plagg actually took time to chew the cheese. The tiny being was feeling rather desperate. “It was as if she tossed that book into the air like Ladybug does with her yoyo and everything was okay, I was back in school.”

Luckily, Plagg still had his mouth full. But it was the last piece of Camembert. The tiny kwami eyed the sofa. Perhaps he could chew that only to keep his mouth busy.

“Lila threatened her, both of them actually.” Adrien was thoughtful. Okay, this part of conversation he could participate in. “And I told Marinette to take that high road.” The boy spat the last few words.

Plagg gulped the last piece of cheese but remained silent. He was not going to add oil to that fire, and frankly, there was not much else to do for him.

“And that is how I helped her after she got me back to school.” Adrien continued to whine.

“You didn’t know, kid.” Plagg replied.

“I should have known that it was Lila who stole that book.” The boy blamed himself.

Plagg repeated the same statement.

“I thought Lila was producing lies that only had the potential to hurt herself.” Adrien continued. “I was so wrong. I was so oblivious to her malice.”

“Oh you are getting closer and closer to the truth kid.” Plagg muttered as he hid in the basket with the dirty laundry. The boy stopped to lament about his treacherous (love) life and threw himself onto his giant bed. The tiny black cat was relieved as finally he had a moment of peace.

Adrien expected to fall asleep easily once he was in his bed. T he day was exhausting. Adrien started to laugh out loud at that moment. 

“What is wrong?” Plagg asked clearly worried for his chosen sanity.

“The lie that Lila used to get Marinette back to school!” Adrien wheezed. “Of course it was a lie in her eyes, but I’m beginning to think it was not a lie at all.”

“I need more cheese for this.” Plagg was exasperated. He was not going to get his much needed sleep, because everyone knows that a decent cat needed more than sixteen hours of sleep in a day, and a tiny cat like ancient god of destruction needed even more.

“I mean, she planted the necklace and acted being hurt, but she really is a pathological liar.” Adrien laughed. “She actually told the truth!”

“So, what do you want to do about it?” Plagg teased.

“ I need to see if Hannah is okay.” Adrien muttered.

“ Of course, that is your answer to everything, transform and stalk girls.” Plagg muttered grumpily  while he was sucked into the ring.

The boy transformed and vaulted away through his window. The night was dark, the street lamps glowed upon Parisian night life but Chat wanted only to make sure a few of his friends and classmates were okay. The moment he flew over the wall that enclosed the garden around the Agreste mansion, the air was clearer and less stuffy. Chat breathed in the night air greedily and landed on a familiar rooftop. As a matter of habit he glanced back to the mansion. The large mansion was not inviting. Then he turned forward and started to run and jump over the rooftops and chimneys.

He knew he was not supposed to use his miraculous for selfish things, but he felt obliged to check on his young classmate who probably got almost akumatized that day. Little did he know that it was him who prevented it already, together with Marinette. Hawk Moth had released the butterfly and expected a strong akuma. Hannah was distressed, but her feelings subsided as quickly as they rose and there was nothing much to do but to find a different victim. The victim turned out to be a distressed bee keeper so they made him into a wasp man. That made the villains leave their lair and spur into action where they spotted two temporary wielders in the park. Therefore, Hawk Moth concluded he was having a lucky day. But Chat did not know that. He hurried to check on his classmates instead.

First one to check was Hannah. Her home was on the way and he could easily check the situation from the rooftop across the street. She was the one who went under enormous pressure that day and Chat Noir was seriously worried.

He landed on the same rooftop he used with Ladybug the week before. The tall window was lit up and opened. He could see that Hannah was awake. Well, the girl was barely awake and talked with her mother. He worried about another argument. But the girl was allowed to go to sleep by her mother after she confirmed she done all her housework. The atmosphere was quiet and peaceful. Her brothers were probably asleep. He wondered if Hannah did all her homework. Which Adrien sincerely doubted was the truth, because Hannah surely did not do that French homework. He decided to help her with that during the lunch break. There was no point in staying there, so he moved away and observed the city.

It was filled with the usual noise, cars and few pedestrians in the street. He suddenly realized he wanted company. Then Chat vaulted away towards the Seine. Perhaps he wanted to ask Luka about his day, perhaps he wanted to learn what was he doing with Kagami in that park. Or what they were talking about, he clearly heard that Luka mentioned Alya was pushing her. Usually, his first instinct was that Alya was pushing Marinette. Because she did push Marinette to do some things and then his shy classmate would turn awkward. Marinette did blush and stammer and stutter while they talked and she often had that over expressive face and exaggerated hand gestures when they met and talked, but he remembered rather clearly she was able to talk almost normally with him.

Who else could be she that Luka and Kagami were talking about? Lila? Hardly. Especially since that was someone with whom Kagami wanted to talk to. Wait, perhaps Kagami wanted to ‘talk’ with Lila, but using one of her weapons? Nah, that was not the reason. Surely they talked about someone else. Perhaps it was Marinette. He was going to ask his classmate if she met with Kagami and he was going to know, but Luka was closer. The boy was not sure if it was curiosity or even a hint of jealousy pushing him to do that, but whatever that was he saw the deck on Liberty was empty. Suddenly, Chat felt sad about not being able to talk to his friend. They could have relaxed conversation, Luka would play the guitar for him, Chat would throw in a pun or two to make him laugh. Yeah the boys should just have some fun. The bicycle was there, but Luka was below deck in his cabin and discussed something with Juleka.

Chat smiled to himself, he wished he had a little sister, he would be less lonely and he would be nice big brother, always ready to protect his younger sibling. Would his sister bring home nice girls from her class and he would like them? He watched the brother and sister and perked up his ears.

“I am telling you, little sis, you could be a model, you have it in you.” Luka was telling Juleka.

Chat remembered how the girl got akumatized because of her insecurities. Wait. Juleka was distressed because Alya was pushing for the photo shoot. With him. And then they replaced her with Marinette. Maybe Luka was thinking about that. Yes. That was it. His classmate mumbled out some answer that even the cat ears could not decipher into meaningful sentence. Perhaps that was not even the point.

“I’m sure Adrien would agree with me.” Luka continued. Okay, Chat Noir thought, Adrien was going to do an encouragement talk with his classmate. Perhaps there was a chance to get her to model with him for his father. That was an idea he already had, he even mentioned it to his father. Well, it was not as if he had any choice or a chance to give his word on the subject.

But then Luka continued to praise Adrien and Chat Noir had to blush at the kind words coming from his friend. He had to leave. Suddenly he felt guilty to stalk his friends like that. So he left, and completely missed the discussion about him and his pigtailed classmate that followed.

Then he started to vault around different rooftops, was going to Kagami an option? Maybe he could talk to her? He could simply state that the two superheroes were looking for her and Luka, and then ask her what they were doing, not that whatever they were doing or talking about was superhero business, but Kagami was such a person that she would state the facts as they were. Finally, Chat gave up, the windows were dark already and the whole plan was perhaps a bit over the top and borderline abuse of his miraculous.

Chat vaulted away and wondered what had gotten into him. He never spied on his classmates, except only last week such spying helped him and Ladybug prevent at least one akuma from rampaging all around Paris. That was right, he told himself that justified his actions that day. What if Luka and Kagami were distressed because they did not get their miraculous that afternoon? Just like Chloe was? It could have lead to a Miracle Queen or something (Hawk Moth should have stolen the miracle box for that but Chat ignored that face to justify his actions).

Then he remembered Marinette. She was practically akumatized because of Lila’s lies that day when she was expelled from school. It was pure luck that the scarlet butterflies retreated. After the boy learned about how Marinette got him back to school, he felt much better about having to put up with Lila only to get his dear friend back to school. He wished he knew a better way. He suddenly realized that Marinette’s balcony was nearby, so why don’t go there? She was only a few jumps away. The today’s events were stressful for her too. She was threatened before, it was much worse for her to see Lila threaten Hannah than it was for him. He really needed to check on his classmate.

Chat liked to think that he landed on her balcony noiselessly. He sneaked over to the window that was above her bed. Her room was in the dark already, his classmate was probably asleep. Why was he sneaking up to her like a creep? He resolutely turned around from Kagami’s building as soon as he saw that the windows were dark. His night eyesight allowed him to see inside so he never approached. And yet, he jumped onto Marinette’s balcony without thinking and he strolled over straight to her window. He knew it was right above her bed.

Therefore he reached her rooftop window and stopped. His eyes were trained to the wall before him. He could not look down. He did not want to look down. But it was tempting. Something was pulling him down, he just had to glance once. He would see his sleeping classmate. In her bed. It took all of his self control not to do it. And he knew it was all him, Adrien, because Plagg would definitely not only look but phase through the glass and ask for Camembert. Chat took a deep breath. He was not going to look down. Then he slowly turned around and walked away. He never looked down through the window. He never saw if his classmate was there, if she was safe, if she was asleep. He vaulted away without knowing that very awake Marinette saw the Parisian superhero was walking over her balcony in the middle of the night while there was no akuma attack, she knew there was none, she checked, after he left, twice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did Chat go home?


	36. Bedtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat is rather lonely this evening ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't just send him to bed without actually talking to someone.

Bedtime

Marinette sat up on her bed the moment she heard Chat land. Tikki was asleep and she did not want to wake up the tiny red bug. She clearly saw him above the window. Why was Chat Noir on her balcony at that hour? There was only one possibility. He was there because he wanted talk to her about being Multimouse again. During the akuma fight that afternoon Chat asked Ladybug to use Multimouse from time to time, because Hawk Moth did not know her identity. She was so touched by his high opinion of her as the wielder of he mouse miraculous. His praise made her feel warm inside. Because he knew that Multimouse was Marinette and he still wanted her around. But it was impossible to be Multimouse and Ladybug at the same time without revealing her identity. Chat left her terrace and she did not know what to do with herself.

Marinette turned on the light. She had to do something to take her mind off her superhero partner. That book she was expected to read for literature was unbelievably boring. She was going to fall asleep in a few pages.

Chat Noir did not leap far. He was out of breath, but not because of jumping along rooftops. It was because he realized how much he wanted to return and actually look through her window and see her sleeping. Was she wearing the same pyjama? That cute pyjama she was wearing while they were running away from his bodyguard and his fans. He wanted to see her again, he wanted to know that she was safe and asleep and happy and … he turned around and looked at the dark windows. He was far but he could recognize a few shapes in the dark. He was in that room, it must have been her chair and a part of her chaise. But then the light was on. He closed his eyes and ducked. He was far enough, but he still felt as if the light stung his eyes at the first moment.

Wait! The light meant Marinette was awake. Perhaps she just returned to her room from downstairs? What if she was in the bathroom? No! Bad Chat. But he was staring at the window anyway and saw the girl as she was picking up a book from her desk. Well, she was obviously still awake. Perhaps she was struggling with her schoolwork and could not sleep? Perhaps she needed help with her homework? Maybe she was stressed because of what Lila did to Hannah? Or her? Maybe she needed a friend to talk to? He was her friend. She deserved some help from her friend. Maybe she would call Alya at this hour, but now she did not really have that option? He was going to pay her a visit. He was going to greet her and if she did not want to talk to him she was going to send him away. Probably. Yes, he could go there and check on his friend, she was not going to mind, it was nothing inappropriate, he was just worried about his friend and that was why he went to see her, just like he checked on many of his friends that evening. Just because of that. There was nothing else going on.

Marinette was gradually drifting in her sleep although her eyelids were open. Her eyes were unfocused on the open book. Her irises skimmed left and right over the text but her brain stopped processing the words she was reading and started to produce some pictures on its own. She probably started to dream while she was still awake. Then her ears started to produce noises in her dream because she heard a soft thud and steps on her balcony.

Someone was nocking.

Her head turned and her eyes looked before her brain processed the time of the day and what were really her options on what or who to find there.

“Chat Noir!” She whispered.

The adrenaline made her jump to her feet and open the hatch door.

She was rubbing her eyes.

Chat was not sure why he was there any more. He enjoyed the sight, but that was not really what he came for, right? She looked fine, sleepy, cuddled in her bed with a book.

“Good evening princess!” He greeted.

“E” She yawned and put her hand over her mouth just a fraction of a second too late. “Evening Chat.” She greeted back.

The hero observed her carefully. She was obviously not distressed. She was smiling, her eyelids heavy.

“Um, sorry, I saw the light and though I’d say hello and check on you.” The boy rubbed the back of his neck.

Marinette remembered the Multimouse discussion. Right! She was too tired for that. Maybe this way she would look bad and he would give up and never mention her as a possible wielder. Yes. She had a plan. The problem was that having a plan made her feel alive and awake.

“I’m okay.” She yawned again. ‘Do not look interesting. Do not look like a hero material.’ She told herself and slumped her shoulders. She stood on her bed, he crouched beside the rooftop window.

Chat was watching her, she could feel it. Maybe, just maybe she felt a little shy because Chat was looking at her while she was wearing her pyjama. But, she was too tired to care. Besides. She ran all over Paris with Adrien Agreste in that pyjama, it should be suitable to greet a Parisian superhero who just happened to drop by in the middle of the night unannounced.

But then a strange idea dropped straight onto her mind and her eyes opened wide. She was looking at him. Maybe there was something bothering him if he was hopping over the rooftops at that time of the night with no akuma around.

“Are you okay?” She asked and tilted her head slightly as she watched him back.

“I am.” Chat replied honestly. He really was okay now that he knew his friends were fine, that she was fine, sleepy but fine. “What was keeping you awake, princess? Trouble with homework?”

He motioned towards the book on her bed.

“Um, I’ve done that.” Marinette looked at the book absent mindedly. For her homework, she took a simple article and replaced a few words with more archaic form. She checked with Tikki if it was okay and both of them giggled at her result.

“Trouble at school?” Chat tried again. He already knew the answer. It was the same trouble after all.

Marinette stared at him for a moment. Then she lowered her eyes and then she finally nodded.

“Care to tell me?” he asked casually.

She looked back to her bed and then finally climbed up to her rooftop terrace. She was not going to invite him into her room in the middle of the night.

“There is that Lila girl in my class.” Marinette spoke quickly and pronounced the name with particular disgust in her face. “She threatened another classmate, her name is Hannah.”

Chat nodded to acknowledge he was following the plot.

“Fortunately, this time there was no violet butterfly involved.” She continued. Chat hitched a breath and stared back at her. “She threatened me before, she even got me expelled.” Marinette offered as a sort of an explanation.

He clearly remembered when Marinette was akumatized, but Adrien was there, not Chat.

“That got me akumatized, finally.” She continued. “It wasn’t even the first time. I should have known.”

“Um, I don’t remember you were ever akumatized.” Chat commented offhandedly. Of course he would remember if he ever fought an akuma that turned up to be Marinette. But, maybe that was some akuma that Ladybug somehow dealt with on her own?

“Well, the first time, after Lila threatened me, I saw the butterfly coming after me and calmed down.” She smiled. Chat did not look relieved at all, he was struck straight in the gut. So Marinette was threatened and almost akumatized and he asked her to take the high road with an excuse that Lila got akumatized easily. How wrong was he?

“The second time it was a scarlet butterfly, half the school got akumatized when I got expelled.” She shrugged. He remembered that incident clearly. But he still did not recover from the chock of the first one.

The guilt came crushing down on him. No wonder she was so awkward around him sometimes. His words must have hurt her. She did the nicest thing for him, she got him back to school, and then he returned the favour by telling her not to go after Lila. She could have been akumatized just for the injustice of his words. That darn sculptor got akumatized for less.

“Um, Chat?” he heard her voice.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered back.

No wonder she stammered and stuttered around him, no wonder she was so awkward sometimes. Maybe she wanted to be friends with him, but what he did stung so hard that she always retreated when he got too close. That stupid thing he did in the wax museum. It felt so good to hear those words from her. But he was actually hurting her, he could see it even then. She was just too nice to tell him off so she tried to invent some excuse. His mind was a blur of memories.

“You’re sorry?” He heard her voice.

No wonder she left him and Kagami to have the ice cream alone. Andre was making things complicated and she probably remembered how he asked her to help him with his date with Kagami, when four of them went to the ice rink. He did not want her to leave.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Chat finally spoke. He became aware that he was holding her, or she was holding him, his eyes were blurry, his cheeks were wet and she hugged him. It reminded him of the lunch break in the park when he held her. She did not mind it then, she did not mind it now so maybe she had forgiven him? Both Adrien for betraying her and Chat when her father got akumatized. He did not even know who initiated the hug now, was it her, was it him, did it even matter?

“Yeah, now Hannah is going through that.” Marinette continued.

“Is she okay? Should I go and check for butterflies?” Chat just saw the girl and she was okay. But that was not something to share right now.

“Um, I saw her after school, I brought her some pastries with Kagami. She was okay, doing laundry and her homework in that basement.” She was speaking slowly and tried to let go of him but he did not let her.

“Kagami?” He repeated after her without thinking. What excuse did Chat Noir have to ask for the girl?

Marinette was quick to provide an excuse, at least in her head, because only Chat Noir and Ladybug knew about their failed attempt to give Kagami the dragon miraculous that afternoon.

“Yes, she came over to the bakery with Luka yesterday, and today we met in the park.” Marinette shrugged. Maybe Chat Noir was not going to insist on her taking the mouse miraculous if she was so close to an exposed miraculous wielder. She was a classmate of most of the other exposed wielders and well she was a friend to Luka. Hm, a friend. Her brain teased her.

“Oh, I’m glad you’re friends.” Chat smiled and started to let go of her. It felt good to hold her but he realized how tight he was holding her. So Kagami came over with Luka, he wasn’t jealous, he just wished he was there, he just wanted to spend more time with them, with his friends.

‘Well that plan backfired’ Marinette thought, maybe he was just polite.

“Hawk Moth learned the identities of few of the temporary miraculous wielders.” Chat spoke.

“Oh, no.” Marinette commented because she was annoyed, they were going there with the subject tonight. Chat, on the other hand interpreted her reaction completely differently.

“You didn’t know, but it was very fortunate that you avoided those tiny wasps, because you were really magnificent as Multimouse and I asked Ladybug to use you again.” He smiled gently at the girl. Her eyes were wide, she blushed at his praise and he heart was beating hard. She schooled herself in a moment.

“That is a bad idea, I was almost akumatized, twice, I just told you that.” She replied indignantly. “And I revealed myself.”

“To me.” He was still smiling. “And all of the other temporary wielders were akumatized before.”

“You are not supposed to reveal their identities to me!” She scolded.

“I didn’t! Plenty of people were akumatized in Paris.” Chat protested. But her scolding reminded him so much of how his lady scolded him from time to time.

“I’m sorry Chat, it is just, I do not want Hawk Moth to learn my identity. My family would be in danger.” She apologized.

That reminded Chat of Weredad. He instinctively glanced towards the hatch door that led to the terrace. Marinette noticed his move.

“Yeah.” He muttered.

“They are both sleeping.” Marinette yawned.

“I’m sorry about that too.” Chat whispered and knew she understood what he was talking about. He hurt this girl so much in and out of the suit.

“He’s okay. I’m not hurt. And it was all my fault, really.” She replied with a smile, it was really her who was to blame and she could not bear her partner to take the blame for her false confession, he looked so guilty, his ears were flat and his tail plopped to the tiles.

“Well, you are with the guitar guy now, right?” Chat winked but there was something painful in him while he spoke, it was probably just the memory of Weredad. Then he remembered his conversation with Luka, he knew they were not together, but Chat did not know that.

She shook her head and then shrugged. Luka was definitely not her boyfriend. They were just friends. Very good friends. Very close friends.

Chat sighed, he knew Luka liked her and he thought she liked him back, but Luka mentioned something like they were not there yet and, yes, of course, Luka spent a lot of time with Kagami in the last few days, and it happened after him, Adrien, told Kagami that he was not really ready to have a girlfriend just yet.

“Did Kagami steal the boy in front of you?” He spoke out loud, he did not mean to speak those words. He knew how much his fencing partner was competitive and how focused she could be on her target.

Marinette took a step back. She tried to speak but only incoherent sounds escaped her. She flailed her hands and finally clenched them into fists.

“No. I walked away.” She whisper shouted back.

“Okay.” Chat raised his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry to pry. It was none of my business.”

She might have preferred the subject of Multimouse to the way this conversation had turned. Because there was no way that she was going to discuss her feelings with one of the boys she had feelings for. Her mind was so messed up by the changes in her heart rate. But at least for liking Chat there was a clear ‘no’ sign popping up and his magical outfit would turn white whenever she felt her heart was pumping slightly faster in his presence.

But it was not Chat’s fault. He suffered from guilt, she was able to see that, he looked as if he surrendered to whatever form of punishment she had. And if she sent him away, he would feel hurt and Hawk Moth akumatized people for that. That was something to avoid. She smiled her brightest smile.

“Okay, I’m okay. Friends can ask each other things.” She was glad to see him straighten up and smile. His cat ears were high and his tail twitched.

“Okay, so, as a friend, I can ask you anything?” Chat smirked.

“Don’t push it Chat.” She warned.

“Well, if Ladybug and me really need you, would you be Multimouse again?” He practically begged.

She couldn’t say no. But she couldn’t really say yes either.

“If Ladybug asks me … “ She trailed off. Yes, she merely pushed the responsibility to her alter ego and then she was going to face the same begging from Chat Noir, just dressed up in her magical suit. But she simply did not have the strength to argue any more. She yawned again.

Apparently that was all Chat needed to be happy.

“Okay, great, I see you need your beauty sleep.” He winked.

She could not oppose that.

“Good night Chat.” She spoke once she yawing stopped.

“Good night Princess.” He followed her to the hatch door and closed the hatch before he vaulted back to the mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He will talk to others as Adrien


	37. My Homework

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila has problems with delivering homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lila is in action again.

My Homework

Ms Bustier was taking attendance and the phones were collected. In the absence of the device, Alya was forced to whisper elaborate description of the fight. Marinette was only half listening, but she did turn around and pretended to pay attention. Adrien was listening intently although he never turned around. Ever since he realized that two of his closest friends were Rena Rouge and Carapace, he had a different view on Alya’s Ladyblog.

Then the English teacher entered and even Alya was forced into silence.

They listened to the lesson, filled in a pop quiz and collected the worksheets meant for homework. But then the teacher decided they had enough time to stand in front of the classroom and speak about themselves. Lila did not only raise her hand. She stood up. She was the first to speak.

Lila spoke.

“In English!” The teacher warned.

Lila first glared then feigned tears.

“But I can’t do it on the fly.” She whined.

“As I explained. You can read what you wrote about yourself.” The teacher smiled gently. “Okay Lila, your minute is up, who’s next?”

Lila begged and whined to talk more about herself, but Chloe was taking the stage. The mayors daughter was never humble so she posed a record for self praise in a minute. Kim and Alix followed. Hannah listened carefully and she was even making notes on her little classroom chart. Ivan snickered at that. It was a festival of slightly exaggerated achievements. Alya and Nino followed before Rose and Juleka. Only the teacher heard the last one.

“And you are the best model I ever worked with.” Adrien added. Juleka might have mentioned the modelling gig, but nobody heard her anyway. She smiled shyly on her way back to her seat. That comment made Lila snarl. Nathaniel flinched but returned to whatever he was drawing.

Then the teacher started to ask for people to speak. Chloe practically pulled Adrien from his seat. So the boy spoke, he was born, he listed his schooling experiences, he took pride in his fencing (that made Marinette remember how much Kagami had in common with him).

“But you never mentioned your father nor that you are a model.” Chloe whined when the boy took his place. Mylenne and Ivan followed. Then Sabrina who was waiting more for approval from Chloe that the teacher. Marinette went next, bakery, class president, the hat, Jagged Stone glasses and album. She never travelled.

“Just bragging about herself.” Lila whined. “And I couldn’t even speak about myself.”

The teacher checked the time and called for Nathaniel.

The boy was blushing so hard but stuttered out about his comic book. Then the teacher announced the last student to speak.

Hannah descended slowly. She slowly turned around, she began with her name and place of birth. She omitted the year.

“Then my parents graduated and we moved away.” She took a deep breath. She skipped a few sentences from her homework. The teacher frowned. She listed a few places where they lived, named her parents and her brothers and when they were born and mentioned how they moved back to Paris and how she was happy and excited to be there. The teacher intended to make Hannah read the whole text, but the bell rang and she had to give up on that, she collected her books and left the classroom.

“Oh, how many little white lies have you told us?” Lila cooed while she descended the stairs. Most of the class raised their eyes towards her. Marinette sat up straight. Everything _she_ said was true. Hannah gulped as she watched the liar descend the stairs. Adrien growled and was ready for an attack.

“Aren’t you taking this English assignment a bit too seriously, Lila?” Chloe huffed.

Hannah knew everything she said was true, she might have avoided a fact or two, or twenty important events in her life, but she definitely did not lie.

“And I did not even get a chance to talk about my achievements.” Lila whined but her eyes never left her prey.

“Yes Lila, why don’t you tell us anyway.” Alya encouraged.

That was an unforeseen save.

“Tell us Lila.” Few more students encouraged. They liked hearing fancy stories about famous people. All of them exaggerated a little. They all knew how to beautify their achievements, it was fine. There was nothing extraordinary in what Hannah had told them. She was just a girl with a normal life who moved a few times. Why would anyone bother to oppose that?

Lila stood there for a moment unsure of what to do. She wanted Hannah to crack and cry out how she stole Alya’s phone intimidated by the threat to be exposed. But the girl just stood there like a deer in the headlights.

Hannah was waiting for Lila to strike. Because Lila’s pose and manners were threatening. She was going to take it, she was going to brave the storm and then she was going to do something about it. But the blow, neither verbal nor physical never came.

“I’m glad you asked … “ Lila began to tell her story. She was back up on the top of the stairs.

Hannah exhaled slowly. Phew, that was close.

Adrien got up and leaned over to Marinette. He looked concerned. He wanted to speak about that threat Marinette received and apologize.

“This means Lila never went to Damocles.” Marinette whispered. “You were right.” She was focused on Hannah and how to help her.

That changed his plans slightly.

“Of course I was.” Adrien had that crooked smile on his face, that crooked Chat Noir smile.

But Marinette never recognized it. As soon as she looked at him, she stared at those warm green eyes and Adrien was smiling at her, he was so close, and he was happy and her brain was not working again.

Hannah collected herself slowly. She simply stood there and looked at her notebook. She read everything she wrote about herself. She felt pathetic. Her classmates were so accomplished and all she had were dreams. She felt lucky to be alive.

Chloe was busy with Sabrina and the next beauty appointment. Nino was listening to some music and switched off. Other students mostly listened to the story Lila had to tell. It was exaggerated and over the top, but it was new and exciting. It was something to take their minds off the school curriculum. Half of them already noticed holes in some of the statements Lila made, but that was not the reason to disregard her completely. Besides, it was really captivating to listen to her.

Adrien wanted to talk to Marinette and apologize for his misjudged advice. But she was smiling back at him and he did not want to spoil the moment just yet. He liked it when she smiled at him. She was happy. So he remained silent.

Finally, the math teacher entered and students were asked to take their places. The bell rang when Hannah finally ascended the stairs to sit on her place.

“Let me have your homework sheets.” The teacher asked after greeting.

Hannah took her worksheet and brought it down the stairs.

While everyone was busy, Lila slipped her worksheets into Hannah’s backpack.

“I can’t find my homework.” Lila cried.

Everyone turned towards her.

Hannah just handed over her worksheet and turned around.

“Someone must have taken it, I had it right here.” Lila insisted.

“Not another phone incident.” Kim rolled his eyes. Alix groaned loudly. The rest of the class was ready for having their belongings searched.

The teacher stood next to his desk and observed the classroom.

“I had everything done, I solved all problems and correctly!” Lila insisted.

Marinette rolled her eyes. Adrien clenched his fists. Alya narrowed her eyes towards Hannah.

“There” she suddenly pointed towards the teacher who was holding Hannah’s worksheet in his hands. “I know that one is mine. I would recognize that pen colour anywhere. It is my favourite pen that Prince Ali gave to me after we signed so many autographs.”

The teacher glanced towards the worksheet, then towards Hannah and then back to Lila.

“That is my worksheet.” Lila insisted. She descended the stairs. “There, she just removed my name and wrote hers.”

The teacher observed the worksheet and then looked back at Lila. Then he turned towards Hannah.

“Did you solve these problems?” He asked quietly.

Hannah nodded.

That was a trick question. He remembered how Lila handed over a worksheet with solutions provided by Hannah so even if it was Lila’s worksheet, but Hannah solved it for her, the answer was a ‘yes’. He put the worksheet on the side, not on top of the pile like the rest of them.

“But that is my homework.” Lila insisted.

The teacher produced no reaction.

Hannah was not sure what was expected of her. She looked at the worksheet, at the teacher, at Lila, at the rest of the class. Adrien looked angry and frustrated. Marinette was ready to explode.

“Leave her alone Lila.” Adrien groaned.

“Please go to your seats. We will have this resolved.” The teacher spoke to maintain some order in the classroom.

Lila feigned tears as she was going back to her seat. Hannah followed quietly.

“There” Lila exclaimed victoriously. She ceremonially raised Hannah backpack and took sheets of paper that were sticking out. “This is Hannah’s homework. See? And nothing is solved.” She claimed without ever looking at the papers. She stomped down the stars and pushed Hannah who was going back to her seat, to the side while she pretended it was Hannah who tripped her so she threw herself into Adrien’s lap. The boy pushed her up with disgusted expression. Then he faked a smile.

The teacher took one look at the worksheet and set it aside too.

“There is your name on it!” The teacher stated to Lila.

“That is because she wrote it there.” Lila insisted.

The teacher stared at Lila for a moment. She fluttered her eyelashes she talked and talked about how it was injustice, she blamed the class president (without naming Marinette) for encouraging such behaviour.

“I asked the class president to protect me form the bully, but she did nothing, she even sided with the bully.” Lila insisted.

“you are the bully.” Marinette shot back.

“I just can’t take it any more.” Lila cried. “why are you so mean to me Marinette? You never liked me. Now you are turning all my friends against me. You even took Adrien from me.”

“I was never yours to be taken.” Adrien replied through gritted teeth.

“Ahem.” The teacher asked for attention. “Today we are going through the problems similar to those you got for homework.”

Lila glared back just for a second, because she was dismissed, because neither Hannah nor Marinette got punished.

“We can start with the first problem, it is the easiest one you got.” The teacher explained the problem. Lila began to stomp away to her seat. “Lila, why don’t you demonstrate to us how to solve this one.”

The girl in question turned around slowly.

The teacher held the solved worksheet in his hands.

“On the blackboard.” The teacher motioned for her to approach with a smile. “Come on, I won’t bite.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly, my arthritis.” Lila whined.

The teacher smiled.

“That is quite okay.” He took a piece of chalk. “I can write for you, you just tell me what to write.”

Lila needed a moment for the next idea.

“Okay, can I just get my worksheet, it is all written right there.” She asked slyly.

“Oh, I have it right here.” The teacher waved the papers. “You can take the empty one if you forgot the details of the problem and read them again and then explain how you solved it.”

Lila took the papers from the desk and read the problem. Then she mumbled something incomprehensible.

“What?” The teacher asked.

Lila mumbled again, then she started to read the problem all over again.

The rest of the class was going impatient. They solved that problem correctly and knew what had to be done. It was easy once you actually done it, but if you haven’t bothered to take a look at your homework, it was hard. Kim muttered how he needed the most time for the first problem until he got it right, then the other were actually easier.

“Okay, but what should I write?” The teacher demanded.

“That, the text assignment.” Lila shrugged.

The teacher turned around.

“Okay, imagine I wrote down the whole text of the problem. Can we begin with the solution now?” The teacher replied.

“Um.” Lila looked around. “I can’t, I simply cant do it, all the attention is on me and I can’t handle it.” She feigned tears again.

“Pffft.” Marinette snorted and could not stop herself from laughing, she covered her face and nose to hide herself.

Adrien shook his head and laughed quietly too.

There were many eyebrows raised.

“Okay.” The teacher smiled. “Hannah, would you like to try?”

The girl descended the steps, made a wide circle around Lila, took the chalk and quietly wrote the solution.

The teacher checked the worksheet and nodded.

Hannah smiled.

“That is my solution, she took it from me, she … she memorized it.” Lila was acting again.

The teacher flipped to the last and most complicated problem.

It took a few minutes, but Hannah wrote the solution for that one on the blackboard. But she offered no words.

“She didn’t explain anything.” Lila complained.

Hannah took a deep breath. She took the unsolved worksheet and slowly assembled a few sentences of explanation.

Max was holding his hand in the air.

“Yes Max.” The teacher answered.

“That is a different procedure than we were taught.” The boy stated simply. He copied the procedure form the blackboard and Hannah explanation eagerly before he stated his observation.

“Exactly, that is how we were taught in Italy.” Lila cut in.

Hannah flipped her head towards the teacher.

“I don’t know how they teach polynomial functions in Italy, but Hannah completed the procedure exactly as it was done in this worksheet.” The teacher spoke calmly.

Marinette wanted to applaud to the teacher. Adrien grinned. Hannah did it, the proof was just there.

After that, other students took turns and explained how they solved other problems until the teacher asked Max and Hannah to present solutions to one particular problem. The procedures were short, but written differently.

“That is how we do it in Italy.” Lila cried again.

The teacher took a deep breath.

Hannah and Max were quiet.

“But you were here when we were learning that.” Marinette cut in.

“See, I told you, she is against me the whole time.” Lila complained.

The teacher was beginning to feel headache.

“Marinette, you are the class president?” The teacher spoke calmly.

She nodded.

“I trust you will take the necessary steps for Mlle Rossi to get all the help she needs. I will endorse you.” The teacher was finished.

Marinette nodded although she was not sure what kind of help she was supposed to find. Was it tutoring? Was she expected to organize Adrien as a tutor for Lila in math?

Lila smirked, her eyes looked at Adrien as if he was prey. The boy gulped. Marinette felt her stomach tie in knots.

The teacher typed in a note on his tablet.

“Okay, since our time is done, I suggest you take the next set of worksheets for your homework. That is it for today.” The teacher finished and left the classroom.

Hannah signed her worksheet as soon as she took it and put it in her backpack. Those few papers became a treasure to keep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is what a teacher should do. Sending kids to the principal's office is a sign of weakness.  
> If you think the teacher dumped the problem to Marinette, keep in mind he made the note, he just did not say what his idea was in front of the whole class.


	38. Give me a break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just your usual lunch break at Francoise Dupont.   
> The protection squad in action, Marinette starts paperwork ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The school procedure should require collecting statements from all persons involved.  
> And there is paperwork.  
> A lot of it.  
> And I never met a schoolteacher who likes it.

Give me a break

“Hannah can you explain me your procedure?” Max asked.

“You really ruled out there.” Kim praised.

“Wow girl, you’re faster … er … as fast as Max.” Alix praised while she checked Max’s expression.

The rest of the class praised her too.

Lila was angry, that new girl was the centre of attention again. Hannah was often the subject of her classmates conversations even when the girl herself was not present. They discussed her reaction to the chemistry incident. They discussed her knowledge of anatomy. Kim could not stop talking about her size (which irritated Alix even more than when Kim was referring to her own height). She even overheard Max and Markov while they were discussing some problem and they mentioned Hannah. Why did she always had to do something so exceptional? It was like that each time that tiny speck of a girl showed any knowledge in any subject, or any skill, in anything. There was nothing interesting about that new girl, she was just a boring nerd. (It was not that Hannah was mentioned so often, but each time she was stung Lila straight into her jealous gut).

“You are going with me.” Both Adrien and Marinette spoke to Hannah in unison. They looked at each other and then back at the girl. Hannah was not given much choice. She protested, mentioned her French homework, but they pulled her out from the classroom. There was no way they were leaving the girl alone after yesterday’s incident.

The rest of the class chatted about polynomials of all things while they proceeded for lunch.

Marinette had a plan. The plan was to leave school as soon as possible.

That was the plan.

First Chloe latched on Adrien. The boy whisper shouted to the girls to run while he handled his childhood friend. Marinette hesitated for a moment before she realized she had to run. The two girls proceeded down the hallway.

“What is going on with you an Marinette?” Chloe demanded. It was almost her birth right to request information and get it. If she was bothered to know. She was not jealous. She was above jealousy, if anyone asked her. She was never jealous of Marinette, okay, because of her popularity and the fact that everyone clearly loved that pigtailed girl. That was not the reason why she snapped at the simple baker’s daughter. Jealousy was for the simple peasants. No, her feelings were far more complex. Actually, that was stupid, her feelings were never the problem, she never let her feelings rule her, okay, so just forget about it!

“Nothing, we’re just friends.” Adrien smiled gently. Plagg moved in his shirt. The tiny god of destruction wished he had a piece of Camembert for each time his chosen said those words. (Perhaps he had it already).

“Yeah, right.” Chloe huffed. “We’re just friends too.” She was acutely aware of the attention Adrien gave to certain friends (and not her). Of course she blamed them, his so called friends, she never blamed Adrien. She never would. It was them who demanded those kinds of attention and he was just so polite.

Adrien raised his eyebrow.

She wrapped her arms around his arm.

“You were touching her knee and her ankle this morning in the car.” Chloe began to walk slowly in the same direction in which the girls left. She knew how inappropriate that was for a boy in his position. Other boys from her class can lay their hands on any other ankle than hers and nobody would read anything into that. But she knew well that her and Adrien were just not brought up that way. And what if someone took a photo of that and posted it on social media? Adrien Agreste in the back seat of his car with his hands all over his classmate? That would have been a scandal. Gabriel would have pulled the boy out of school again. And for what? A baker’s daughter. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

“She fell because I startled her, I was checking for injuries.” He shrugged and made a pointed look to his arm that she was holding. He hid the feeling of guilt inside, first he gave the girl bad advice about Lila and just when he made plans to make everything right, she fell just after his greeting.

“Right.” Chloe sighed and ignored his look. “So I was thinking, this Friday afternoon ...”

“I have fencing with Kagami on Friday afternoon.” Adrien brushed her off.

“And after that?” Chloe inquired. She wanted to spend more time with the boy, okay, nothing special, not really a date. She heard what the rest of the class was talking about, she knew he spent more time with his friends over the weekend that in an average month, so she wanted her share.

“I’m going to some charity event.” The boy replied calmly.

“With?” She raised her eyebrows. She was not above going to charity events with an heir to a fashion empire. (The author has rather low opinion about politicians and fashion empires). She was going to join him there, and they would spend some time together, flash their glamorous outfits and look absolutely fabulous so everyone would envy them.

“Kagami.” Adrien tried to pull his arm out from her grip, but in vain. He glanced in the direction where the girls were just a moment ago. He was getting nervous he needed to leave.

“So Kagami is your girlfriend.” Chloe concluded. That was settled then. She clenched her fists and her perfectly manicured nails hurt her palms. She did not care. It was that darn Japanese fencer girl. She had to admit, the girl was always far bigger threat that Dupain Cheng ever could be. She might even accept if he gave some attention to the baker girl, he would be bored in a week. But he went on a few official events with Kagami, there were photos of them together in magazines and on social media. It looked official, it was official, it was just not announced in the media. Compared to that, those silly pictures of Marinette hiding in the fountain with Adrien were harmless, she was wearing a pyjama of all things. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

“We’re just friends.” The boy was becoming more nervous. Plagg was restless. Adrien patted his chest pocket with his free hand. There was Camembert ready, but he could not feed the tiny glutton just yet.

“Date on a Friday night?” She raised her eyebrows. It was obvious to her how it looked like. She could already see it. The photos of Adrien and Kagami attending a charity event were going to fill the media of all types. Was the boy really so oblivious? First he never recognized Marinette had a crush on him and now he was not even aware that he was in a relationship Kagami? At least in the eyes of the public.

“It is not a date.” He protested. Why wouldn’t everyone just give him a break? There was only one girl he wanted to go on a date with, perhaps not even as Adrien, but as Chat. Everyone else was just a friend, a very close friend, a friend he liked to hug or touch, but just a friend. He did not care what he looked like. He did not care what his father made him to be. He wanted friends not media speculation of him being in a relationship with whoever he came across.

“Right, well then you can go with me ...” Chloe continued.

“No Chloe.” Adrien was getting desperate. “But you can come too.”

Chloe scoffed and turned his head away. He felt pain in the arm she was holding. The blood flow was slightly obstructed there.

“It is a date, okay? It is a date.” If that was what she wanted to hear, then that was what he was going to say. He did not care any more how she called it. He knew it wasn’t but he was ready to say just about anything (non binding) to be let go.

Chloe’s eyes began to well up. She recognized that tone. So she knew they were just friends.

“Look Chloe … “ He was starting to panic. Of course he did not want Chloe akumatized, she was a dangerous akuma. But she took one arm away from him and fiddled with her phone and the boy released a breath.

She opened a social network account on her phone and showed a photo into his face.

“And this guy?” She inquired.

“Luka?” Adrien smiled. “He is a friend too.” He remembered the surprise visit from the day before and missed his friends even more.

“Just a friend?” She inquired with another photo.

“Yes, just a friend.” Adrien confirmed.

“Well I’m your friend and you are never like that with me.” Chloe protested.

“Like what?” He asked and looked at the phone as he tried to see what was exactly wrong with those pictures. But she was flipping them so quickly that he did not notice anything. But he remembered the day with the Kitty Section on Liberty. He smiled gently at the memories.

“See, even now, you’re like that.” Chloe pointed at the boy’s face.

“Like what?” He demanded and tried to get his arm back.

“You’re touching.” She complained.

“We’re touching.” Adrien pointed towards his arm that she was holding.

“But you’re smiling.” Chloe whined.

“I’m smiling.” Adrien gave his best model smile.

“But it is not the same.” She actually held her phone next to his face. “With them, you’re … happy.” She looked away pointedly and let her ponytail flip around her head.

Adrien had nothing to respond.

They were in front of school and a limousine was waiting for Chloe already.

After a few moments of silence, Chloe let go of his arm and took a step back.

“I don’t know what you see in them.” She took a deep breath, but Adrien knew she might cry.

“Look, you can come to the charity event too, it is in the community centre, the music teacher even put it on the school web.” Adrien offered.

“But not as your date.” She sniffed.

His shoulders slumped. He was not going to dump Kagami for that afternoon after he sent the invitation.

“The whole class is going to be there, probably.” The boy added.

“The whole class?” Chloe frowned. “I thought it was some charity gala.”

“No it is just a small event here in the community centre.” The boy shook his head.

“Okay.” She huffed again.

“Okay what?” Adrien frowned.

“You can take Kagami as your date for such events.” She turned and walked away towards the limousine.

Adrien shrugged and picked up his lunch from his driver, then he turned around and went back into school. He had no idea where the girls went. He got a message from Nino that his best bro was in need of company to deal with a sandwich and then later with the French homework in the library. That sounded like a plan, besides, the girls might have taken to the library too, it was Hannah’s favourite place.

“Mlle Dupain Cheng” The words echoed along the corridor.

Marinette stopped in her tracks. Hannah stood by her side and looked at her awkwardly.

“Oh give me a break.” Marinette muttered.

They both turned around really slowly.

“I’m so glad I caught you. This will not take too much of your time, I’m sure.” Principal Damocles approached his student.

“We were just going to fetch some food.” Marinette mumbled up an excuse.

“Oh, but as a class president, you should do your duties.” The man reminded her.

“Of course.” She straightened up.

“Library. Homework. French.” Hannah stumbled out the words she was repeating ever since the lunch break started. She really intended to spend her lunch break in the library.

Marinette glanced towards the girl and then looked back at the school principal.

“Well, why don’t you come along.” The man invited.

Marinette released a breath. That way she was going to keep Hannah by her side and watch over her. All three of them went to the principal’s office.

“I have a pile of complaints here.” The teacher spoke slowly. “They are all related to your class. I need you to fill in your remark on each sheet over here.” He pointed at several lines.

With a huge grin the man went to sit behind his desk. He focused his attention to the screen.

The pile of complaints was huge.

“But some of these are about me.” Marinette noticed. “And they were all made by Lila.”

“Some of them are anonymous tips, some of them are signed. You can ask your classmate to help.” Principal Damocles grinned back. “Your deputy should be here to help you anyway.”

Suddenly dealing with the complaints with the help of Hannah was not such a bad idea. Marinette wondered how would Alya react if she saw all of these.

“Please write something in the place of the student’s account. You don’t have to sign them.” Principal Damocles actually smiled. “I hate the paperwork and these just clutter my office.”

Marinette quickly realised what the tips and complaints were about and sorted them between ‘Not happened’ and ‘Inaccurate description of events’.

Hannah sat by her side with her eyes wide.

“Just write this on each sheet on your pile.” She instructed.

Hannah did as told. There was no signature, just a simple statement, anyone could have done it. She bothered to read a few sheets. Each sheet only confirmed what she already knew. Lila was ill, she needed help.

“You still need to give this to the teachers.” Marinette told the school principal.

“Oh, I will.” Principal Damocles was reading a comic book on his computer screen and not really paying attention to the girls.

“Marinette” Hannah whispered. “My father thinks Lila is ill, she needs help, psychiatrist.” Of course her father would suggest that because psychiatrist is a medical doctor.

That actually put a smile on Marinette’s face.

“We have a school psychologist, it is not the same but we could make that happen.” Marinette smiled.

Both girls were finished, but both of them wanted to talk about Lila with principal Damocles.

“How do you help students?” Hannah blurted out.

Principal Damocles sighed and shifted his attention away from the screen.

“As a class president.” Marinette began.

“What help” He cut in.

“For a student with health problems.” Hannah continued.

“You?” he inquired.

“No.” Both girls replied in unison.

“There is a student in our class with health issues.” Marinette continued.

“Oh, who is that?” Principal Damocles looked concerned.

“Lila Rossi.” Marinette replied.

“Oh.” The man was not willing to waste more of his time to some student problems.

“Today she could not answer math because she could not handle that the attention of the class was on her.” Marinette continued. “The teacher made a note … “

“Note.” The man stroked his beard. He looked at his screen, the comic book was just there. “Well Ms Bustier should handle it for your class.”

That did not sit well with Marinette. Hannah looked hopeful until she saw how her friend deflated.

“The teacher asked me to organize help for Mlle Rossi.” Marinette stated firmly. “As a class president.”

“What kind of help?” The principal was getting impatient. He noticed that the girls were finished with the paperwork and wanted them out of his office.

“She has health issues and … “ Marinette started to list.

“Psychological.” Hannah cut in. Her logic told her that if the school had a psychologist they should mention just that.

“Right, yes of course, and possibly psychological, if she is scared to talk in front of people.” Marinette could not believe what she just managed to pass out of her mouth, but there she was, little white lies could get you really far, apparently. Well her tiny classmate was probably a proof of that.

“Ah, health issues, okay, there is a form for that, I think it was IF-2004A … “ The school principal was going through a list. “No, it was a form IF-2003B.” The man produced a clamped pile of sheets. “And a request for psychological consutlations for a student, that is a form … “ He was checking the list again. “IF-1010A” He ruffled through his drawer. “I can’t find it. Oh there it is.” HE produced another set of clamped sheets. “You fill it in and bring it back.”

Without further ado, the two girls left and the school principal happily indulged himself in reading more comic books.

The forms were very carefully put away in Marinette’s backpack.

“We can go to the library.” Marinette spoke quietly and Hannah followed eagerly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave a lot of responsibility to Marinette in this fic, but she has at least as much in canon too.


	39. Give me a break part two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody needs a break in this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually once asked to leave a library in France because the librarian had lunch break.  
> In real life it should be a teacher, preferably Ms Bustier, who would fill out those forms.  
> And sign them.

Give me a break p2

Marinette had a plan, she was going to fill in those forms right there in the library. She might return them to the school principal before they started the gaming session. They had a study hour and it was a perfect opportunity. The class president was full of confidence, she was going to fill out those forms, get signatures from the math teacher and give them to the principal Damocles.

Hannah was following her classmate full of faith. They were going to deal with this problem. They were going to get help for Lila and then all those incidents in classes were going to stop. It was much easier for Hannah to go through the whole math homework incident when she knew Lila had some kind of psychiatric illness. Each time she felt hurt by what Lila had said, she told herself it was just Lila’s illness talking, it was not real. And she soldiered on.

Adrien was in the library with Nino. They shared their lunches before they started to chat and tease each other, finally they both used the rest of their break to work on the French homework. Well, it was mostly about Adrien going through Nino’s homework and vice versa. Nino was laughing as he read Adrien’s praise of Ladybug’s beauty while Adrien had plenty of suggestions how to fix what Nino wrote.

“Dude, I won’t be able to understand what I wrote if I do what you suggest.” Nino teased.

“I thought that was the point of this homework.” Adrien replied.

The boys snickered, it was the library and they were expected to keep quiet although the librarian was less strict during lunch breaks.

Max and Kim were sitting nearby, but they were having plans for the tech workshop in the afternoon. Max was busy at a computer. Markov and Kim had suggestions on what to do, Kim often complained that the suggestions from Markov were too complicated and made the game dull, while the enhancements proposed by Kim were deemed as not stimulating by the tiny robot.

“How can a hellfire be not stimulating?” Kim countered.

“That utility is absolutely unnecessary.” Markov retorted.

Max shook his head, focused on the screen and adjusted his glasses.

Then they saw the girls and invited them over. Adrien, ever the gentleman, got on his feet and pulled out a chair.

Marinette froze in place. She may have had plans, but all of those were instantly forgotten.

Hannah plopped down on the other chair (that was closer to her anyway). She smiled at Max who was so focused on his plans that he did not even notice.

“Hey math girl.” Kim greeted.

“Hello Hannah” Markov greeted.

Hannah smiled and took out her French homework.

“No, give me a break, not you too, these two guys are such nerds, I thought you would join on our game plan.” Kim whined.

“We are producing enhancements for our gaming class, ahem, tech workshop this afternoon.” Markov informed.

Marinette finally took the seat. She was blushing and she might have fallen off the chair if Adrien did not put his hands on her shoulders to steady her sway.

“Okay, who needs help with that French homework?” Adrien asked quietly.

“They are here to help us.” Kim insisted.

“We decided tu use the extra hour in the library to adjust the game slightly.” Max finally explained because he did not notice the girls until then. That earned a facepalm and a rather stressful screen display from Kim and Markov.

“Hey dudes, are you working on the French homework. This dude over here has ideas, man.” Nino smiled and motioned towards Adrien.

Marinette actually planned to do something else, but if Adrien was there and they were doing the French homework, then French homework it was.

Kim made a dissatisfied noise.

“Stop it, if Marinette helps you we will have no chance in beating her.” Adrien winked at the boys.

Finally two boys and a robot settled to let the girls work on the homework. Adrien was interested in the game but he helped out with a few words for the work on homework.

It was going just fine for a few quiet minutes. With quiet ‘Can’t find old words online’ Hannah went to the shelves to fetch that large dictionary and Marinette’s eyes met with those gorgeous green, she was surprised and flailed her hands and tossed all her stuff to the floor in one swift move.

“Um, clumsy?” She squeaked and sank from her chair to the floor where she started picking the stuff up. She was aware of some movement from the side where Adrien was sitting. He probably just got on his feet and moved his chair to the side, she thought. But then she realized that Adrien was on the floor just next to her and was helping her to pick up her stuff.

“Um, Marinette?” He called.

“Yes” She dropped whatever she collected in her hands.

Adrien smiled. Her brain was almost fried. The two of them were under a desk in the library, such tight and confined space. And dark.

He wanted to talk to her about the threat she received from Lila already so long ago and apologize for his stupid advice to just take the high road, he really did.

“I’m sorry … “ He spoke.

“No no no no it’s okay, I’m so clumsy.” She slightly jumped from her position and hit her heat into the desk above. “ouch”

Adrien laughed.

She laughed.

“Ha ha ha ha” They heard Marinette’s voice f

They both huddled closer and searched for the source of the voice.rom the entrance to the library. “Have you seen how stupid she looked.”

“Hey, wasn’t Marinette just here?” Kim asked nobody in particular.

Max did not even notice that anything odd was going on.

Markov started to compute the speed that the girl should achieve to reach the library entrance from their desk in a short time.

“Yeah, we did her really good.” Another voice replied, it sounded like Hannah.

Marinette peeked between the feet of other students, she could recognize something like her flats and the sneakers Hannah was always wearing. Adrien was just by her side and saw the same.

“Is that Hannah?” Max asked, the boy finally could not ignore the incident any more.

“You did good when you stole Lila’s homework” Marinette’s voice continued to speak.

“Oh give me a break.” Two kids muttered to themselves under a desk. Adrien and Marinette were both hiding, he grabbed her hand to prevent her from jumping out. Marinette was excited about Adrien Agreste holding her hand but her real intention was to run, hide and transform.

“It’s an akuma.” Adrien whispered.

“And you stole her boyfriend. Too bad Adrien adores Lila and his father Gabriel Agreste made her his muse, but you will destroy Lila, Marinette!” They could see a girl dressed like Hannah speak. But the speech was so out of character that even Max and Kim made a face while Markov recited something about very low likelihood that any of the girls would ever talk like that.

“Volpina.” Marinette whisper shouted through gritted teeth.

The illusion of Marinette laughed wickedly.

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other. They both needed to run away, hide and transform, but they needed to hide from each other too.

“I need to … “ They spoke in unison.

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

Marinette connected her index fingers.

“You are not me!” They heard real Hannah scream. After that a really heavy book passed through the illusions that disintegrated while the book hit the bookshelf behind and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

The librarian walked over and picked up the book.

“We are not treating books this way.” The librarian scolded.

Hannah looked at her feet.

“Unless there is an akuma to fight.” The librarian smiled. “Ladybug will fix this.” She added as she looked at slightly damaged book.

Hannah released a breath. She was dragged by Kim and Max to hide behind a bookshelf that held school journals.

“That was awesome.” Kim praised.

“I can say with 98 percent certainty that this akuma is probably … “ The voice was muffled as both Kim and Hannah covered his mouth and shushed him.

Marinette and Adrien used the mess to run away, hide and transform. Separately, of course.

Ladybug was on the school rooftop and surveyed the surroundings. She knew Volpina had to be close, but the villain was hiding. Ladybug squinted to see what was hiding in a particular shadow when Chat Noir noiselessly landed by her side.

“Good morning, My Lady.” Chat flexed his muscles, “Feeline fine?” winked, took his tail and rotated in the air, “What’s up Bugaboo?” then he bent to the side to show his hip “I have a spot for you.” … the routine included cheesy moves that Chat never did, and he even stopped practising his seductive skills lately.

Ladybug first greeted briefly and only glanced toward him, then she concentrated on the shadows as she looked for the akuma, Chat continued to act weird, then she glanced a few more times before she narrowed her eyes and observed him carefully.

She instantly turned around and evaded Volpina who sneaked up and was going after her earrings. They exchanged a few blows, the illusion of Chat Noir quickly dissipated. Volpina jumped away and played the flute again. This time, she created an illusion that included Marinette and Hannah in the school yard with similar conversation as happened in the library. The students that were in the school yard listened to the conversation and started to make angry faces, they actually believed it was real. Ladybug was not able to just let that happen.

“It’s an illusion!” Ladybug shouted to the other students who were listening and threw her yoyo and the illusion disappeared.

Volpina used that precious time to hide.

Plagg managed to shout at Adrien not to cataclysm the akuma directly before the tiny god of destruction was sucked into the ring. After transforming, Chat ran back to the library first. He left Hannah and Marinette there before he transformed and he knew that Volpina, which was Lila, was after both girls, that illusion made it clear if there was ever any doubt.

There was even a possibility that his lady was already somewhere on the scene, perhaps she was fighting the villain already. He saw them the moment he burst in. Volpina had an upper hand on Ladybug who somehow wrapped herself in her yoyo. Volpina was going after the earrings and laughed wickedly.

“No you won’t” He heard Hannah yell as she threw a high school journal, but Volpina stepped aside and the book missed her.

“Can’t use the same trick on me twice.” Volpina taunted.

Then another large book passed through Volpina and Ladybug and both illusions disappeared. The book crashed heavily to the floor. It was the same huge dictionary.

Chat turned his head. The librarian smiled. It was her who threw the book.

“Ladybug will fix it.” She pointed to the book and shrugged.

Chat quickly ran out from the library. There were hundreds of Volpina everywhere. He noticed Ladybug on the rooftop but he was cautious. He could see that she observed him carefully. Then he noticed she took out her earpiece from her yoyo and put it in her ear. He took his earpiece.

“Is that you in front of the library?” He heard Ladybug ask him.

“Is that you on the rooftop?” He replied while he casually clawed several Volpina who disappeared into the thin air. He did not wait for an answer, he vaulted to the rooftop, too annoyed with the number of Volpina that roamed around the rest of the school.

“Hey Chat” He heard both from his earpiece and from Ladybug a few metres away.

“Hello Ladybug.” They both observed each other carefully. His tail twitched left and right.

She took a few steps closer but he blocked her with his baton, she sidestepped the baton, and grabbed his arm. Chat sighed with relief when he felt her touch and smiled gently. She smirked back and relaxed.

“You went after me with your weapon?” She teased.

“You could have been Volpina disguised with an illusion of Ladybug. You used a similar trick before.” He replied with a cheeky grin. “Besides, I was not using my full strength, that is why you evaded it so easily.”

“I knew it was you.” She flashed that superior smile that could light up the room.

Chat made a face as if he did not believe her.

“So what do we do?” He asked and motioned with his head towards all the Volpina around, many of them were jumping onto the rooftop.

“Lucky Charm.” Ladybug got a book.

She smiled.

“I need you to destroy that.” She motioned to a square lid on a rooftop.

Chat called on his power and destroyed the lid. The air was pushing out, it was part of the building air-conditioning.

Ladybug tore the book and threw it into the hole. Sheets of paper flew all around and Volpina illusions disappeared quickly, one by one, as sheets of paper touched them.

Ladybug and Chat Noir quickly faced the remaining Volpina. Ladybug threw her yoyo and knocked the flute out from her hands. Chat Noir snapped the necklace with his claws and then started to claw her hair ribbons and other accessories on the suit while Ladybug stomped on the flute that broke and a violet butterfly flew out.

“You can stop clawing her Chat.” Ladybug warned.

Chat Noir did not look happy that he had to stop using his claws.

Ladybug purified the butterfly while Chat Noir stared down at Lila.

Ladybug picked up one sheet of paper from the ground and threw it in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug.”

“They were awful.” Lila cried as loud as she could, she was making a show and feigned tears. “I’m so sorry Ladybug, Chat Noir.” She threw herself at the two superheroes, but her eyes were on Chat’s ring and Ladybug’s earrings. Both heroes took a step back. Ladybug’s earrings beeped followed by Chat’s ring.

“You need help that is beyond our power.” Ladybug replied coldly but with a huge smile on her face.

Both superheroes jumped to the rooftop for their celebratory fist bump.

“You really knew?” Chat asked.

“The illusion she made of you was even worse flirt than you.” Ladybug rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Impossible.” Chat smirked. Ladybug laughed.

“She got me.” He added with a sigh. “It was an illusion of you defeated by Volpina.”

“Oh Chat.” Ladybug took a step forward and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her.

Their miraculous jewels reminded them it was time to hide and detransform.

Marinette entered the library quickly and slightly out of breath. Tikki was munching on the cookie in her purse.

“Hey Marinette.” Adrien greeted. “Max made an addition to the game, he says there is some chance one of us might beat you now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was time to akumatize Lila again ...


	40. Gaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagami, Marinette, Adrien and Luka play a game ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crossing my fingers ...

Gaming

Fencing was exhausting.

After the akuma fight and after a gaming session in the library, Adrien sort of already used up all his adrenaline resources.

Kagami didn’t.

On the top of that, he witnessed Hannah, of all people, beating Max in a game of his own creation, well once, only once, it was this only one instance, and with considerable verbal support and advice from Marinette and considerable luck, but that made Adrien fear for yet another instance of the Gamer akuma. Marinette was obviously shocked that her advice worked so well so while the tiny girl tried to work out what should her victory dance look like (with help from Alix and Kim this time) the everyday Ladybug cheered Max. It worked, or Hawk Moth was not yet ready to release another violet butterfly.

“First I lost to Marinette in gaming and now you kick my butt in fencing.” Adrien teased Kagami.

Kagami looked uncertain on how to react at first but then she glowed with pride.

“Do you have some time?” He asked with a polite smile.

“Do you want to walk by the Seine?” She asked almost at the same time.

It started as a nice quiet walk in companionable silence, undisturbed by too much noise, traffic, akuma or awkward conversations. Then Adrien told Kagami about the stunt Lila pulled in math. Kagami was relieved to hear how the events unfolded in the end.

“What about that gaming?” Kagami inquired. “When Marinette beaten you?”

“Oh, she did not even want to play in the beginning. She has to do some paperwork as a class president.” Adrien started the story. “Then she did it like ‘if I play once you’ll all leave me alone’, but once she had that controller in her hands, that girl is awesome, she won each game she played, against any of us.”

Kagami smiled thoughtfully.

“And she is a good teacher too, Hannah is getting better under her guidance.” The boy continued to ramble about the game and the moves and … Kagami just listened.

Accidentally or not, they ran into Luka. He was on his bicycle doing deliveries for the bakery.

“How are you?” Kagami asked.

“Almost finished, just to get these edible colours back to the bakery.” Luka smiled.

“Could you bring something back?” Adrien grinned.

Kagami nudged him with her elbow. “You mean someone.”

“Yes someone, yes I meant someone.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

Luka was back quickly with Marinette on his bicycle.

They went to play a game in an arcade. Marinette was reluctant, Adrien was excited, Luka did not care as long as he was with his friends, Kagami really really wanted to go there.

The most popular game involved animating players as Ladybug and Chat Noir, the camera would take the photo of the face and just add a mask. That particular feature of the game caused pure panic in two of the four teenagers.

“Um, it looks very busy.” Adrien was searching for an excuse to avoid that game. At all costs. He did not need one more opportunity to reveal his identity, now that he wielded the ladybug miraculous once, he was concerned that he was not able to avoid the reveal even if he chose to play Ladybug.

“You probably do not have much time, let’s take that one.” Marinette proposed and motioned for another game. Any other game would do. Literally any. Her voice quivered with panic, but the noise of their surroundings camouflaged her nervousness.

Luka, again, did not care, and Kagami really really wanted to try out any game, besides, that other game really looked like something more suitable for her skills. A competitor held a device in their heads and moved while the screen showed a chosen Jedi character or a villain that waved a lightsaber.

“I want to play.” Adrien squealed like a little child and laughed.

Kagami looked at him awkwardly for a moment and laughed, there was nobody around to see them anyway. They were in a public place after all. Marinette laughed at his childish behaviour and Luka simply shrugged raised his hands in surrender and joined them in the arcade.

First Adrien played against Kagami.

“Are you okay with this?” Luka asked Marinette quietly and motioned towards Adrien and Kagami who were busy with the game.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” Marinette shrugged, but it was false, Luka saw right through it.

“You still have a picture of him above your bed.” Luka smiled gently.

Her eyes went wide and the colour drained from her face.

“It is okay, it takes time.” The boy continued.

Marinette looked at her feet, ashamed. He wasn’t supposed to see that, but it was not something she could reply.

“I know you never meant for me to see that, but we put Hannah in your bed.” Luka offered as an explanation.

That made Marinette panic again. She raised her head and looked at him urgently.

“Did he see it?” She sounded desperate.

“If he noticed, he produced no visible reaction.” Luka smiled and tried to sound calm.

Marinette could not panic any more. Adrien lost to Kagami. It was their turn to play.

Luka was not really into the game. Marinette won and she felt Luka did not even fight back.

“Come on!” She chided. “You are ruining the game. Fight!” She tried to motivate Luka to actually attack, but the boy just stood there and smiled at her. He even tried to ‘strum’ the ligsaber, at least it looked so on the screen.

“Go Luka, defend the honour of us boys.” Adrien praised.

“Come on, Marinette.” Kagami cheered. “Go go go, hit, win!”

“You don’t have to encourage Marinette, she is competitive as it is.” Adrien whispered to Kagami.

Kagami stared at him then back at Marinette who was laughing and encouraging Luka to make at least some resistance.

“She competitive?” Kagami asked. They were talking about a girl who walked away when three of them wanted ice cream from Andre. And Kagami knew Marinette liked Adrien, she knew that the other girl wanted to be there.

“Yes, yes she is, she has to win, always.” Adrien stated as he clearly remembered how Marinette swiped the floor with him in video games.

“What about me?” Kagami frowned. Because if he considered Marinette as competitive, what word could possibly describe her, Kagami.

Marinette gave up fighting Luka, points were won too easily. She played with the device and observed the lightsabre on the screen. She exercised different moves with the lightsabre alone. Luka walked away from the game.

“I can’t fight her, can one of you try? She just goes in full attack mode.” Luka nudged Adrien.

Marinette practised a little on thin air. Adrien watched her as if enchanted.

“Come on, go, fight her.” Luka nudged.

Adrien picked up the device while Marinette was focused on the screen. Then he made his move. She saw the other character spring into action and go for her character.

“Finally some challenge.” She was looking at the screen and made her moves, she was not aware who she was fighting.

“Yes yes I got you again” She was dancing a victory dance and then she looked at her opponent. Adrien was smiling and shaking his head.

Marinette gaped, she was looking for air, and a way out of this, probably.

Luka and Kagami were clapping their hands.

Adrien bowed.

Then Marinette followed suit, rather clumsily. It was a good way to hide her pink cheeks.

“You two girls are so competitive.” Adrien smiled. Marinette was bouncing in place, Kagami’s face never changed. “You should find something to compete over. I’d really like to see that.”

Kagami stared at the blonde boy.

Marinette blushed.

Luka gaped.

Marinette and Kagami looked at each other and snorted.

Then all three of them started to laugh and Adrien was confused.

“What?” The blonde boy asked while he wanted to laugh too, although he did not know what was funny, his friends were laughing so it did not really matter.

Luka shook his head slowly and tapped Adrien’s shoulder and then back.

Marinette was blushing rather hard, but her eyes were glued on the blonde boy.

Kagami snickered, then she threw her hand over Marinette’s shoulders.

“Why don’t we go and play the game.” Kagami pulled Marinette away from the boys.

The girls picked up the equipment and started with the next round of the game.

“So what are we fighting for?” Kagami smirked and intentionally glanced towards the boys.

“I told you, I’m not going to fight you over a boy.” Marinette smirked. Her hands were on the gaming gear, her body and mind were in a different mode.

“Okay.” Kagami tilted her head.

“We are fighting for justice and honour.” Marinette exclaimed as she raised her hand, the screen showed her lightsabre. She was smiling and it was obvious she was into the game and joking.

“For justice and honour.” Kagami repeated solemnly, she looked serious as if this was the most important tournament of her life.

“May the force be with you.” The boys cheered together.

They began their duel. Kagami was good, Kagami was fast, but this was no fencing tournament, all moves were allowed and Marinette always had ideas and solutions. The screen was showing an epic battle and the sound effect swooshed with each move of the lightsabres.

Meanwhile the boys were left on their own. Adrien could feel his kwami snickered in his pocket, his shirt was probably moving because his kwami suppressed his laughter. But Adrien could hear his kwami and feel him move. He only hoped the surrounding noise and his own movement hid the action.

The first moment Kagami dragged Marinette away to play the game, Luka felt a bit abandoned to face Adrien alone. All three of them laughed at his statement, the boy was going to ask questions, and the girls left Luka to do it. A pair of curious green eyes were looking at him expectantly. (Another pair of entertained green eyes was peeking from the same boy’s shirt, but Luka never noticed). They all left Luka to explain what the girls were competing for.

“Okay, I get it.” Adrien smiled and turned away.

“What do you get?” Luka panicked a little, if Adrien realized Marinette loved him now, it was going to look as if Luka told him, and he did not want to betray Marinette like that.

“I mean it _was_ obvious.” Adrien continued and stressed the word was.

Luka cleared his throat but said nothing at first.

There was a moment of silence.

“Yeah, I guess it was.” Luka finally spoke. He saw when Marinette made a video of her confession. His assumption that Adrien knew nothing and was oblivious was probably wrong. Adrien definitely cared about Marinette, he cared a lot, but Luka concluded it was not the same kind of love. So the boy knew? That gave a different angle on their conversation on Liberty on Saturday.

“I’m really oblivious.” Adrien muttered and shook his head.

“Yeah.” Luka smiled gently, so the boy just learned the fact recently. Probably just the day before, after they both learned how they got back to school after being expelled/pulled out. That kind of revelation must have encouraged Marinette to finally confess her feelings.

“It was right there in front of me.” Adrien motioned with his hands as if he was showing something in front of him. Luka thought it was Marinette.

“Don’t beat yourself about it.” Luka put an arm over the other boy’s shoulders.

“Gosh, I’m blind.” Adrien rubbed his eyes.

“Nah. It’s not that bad.” Luka was trying to soothe his friend.

“No wonder you laughed at me.” Adrien sighed.

“It wasn’t a bad laugh. It was funny.” Luka rubbed the other boy’s shoulder.

“So you’re making fun of me.” Adrien half joked. “Well, I deserved it.”

“Come on.” Luka shook the other boy a little.

Adrien laughed.

Luka laughed.

They both turned to watch the girls play.

Adrien sighed. The girls played really well, he had to give them credit. But he wished he was there, he wanted to join them, not in place of one of them, he wished the game could use three players.

“What’s bothering you?” Luka looked at the boy beside him. He thought he already knew, it must be hard to be loved by your friend, a friend you care about, while you love someone else, or just not love them back the same way.

“I just wish the game had three players.” Adrien sighed.

“What?” Luka almost shouted. His face went through rather many emotions in a very short time span.

“Oh” Adrien suddenly realized his error. “Four players, of course, you included.” The blonde boy smiled, raised his hand and tapped the other boy’s shoulder, then he casually left his hand there.

Luka blushed. There were no words he dared to speak at that moment. He took a few breaths. This was a surprise, he did not expect something like that from Adrien.

“So this is a game to you?” Luka asked shyly once he rolled all the words again in his head.

“Well, even if you are a Star Wars fan, you should consider this as just a game.” Adrien motioned with his free hand towards the two girls who were playing the game.

Luka gaped at the boy, then followed where his hand was showing, the girls were engaged in an epic battle. But it was a game, it was an arcade game where the two girls could compete.

“So you were, um, talking about this game?” Luka really needed a confirmation. “For the girls to compete?” … _what if the girls were making the game about them, the boys, the girl who won was to choose which boy to take_. Luka just started to think about the four of them as just that, the four of them, not two couples, just four really close friends, a bit closer than some other friends maybe.

Adrien hummed affirmatively.

Then Luka turned his attention towards Adrien. That boy was really oblivious. So he was speaking about the game the whole time.

“What else would I talk about?” Adrien asked suddenly. That was the obvious thing, the girls were able to compete in the game that combined fencing and video games. It was perfect.

“Um nothing.” Luka replied rather quickly.

“You were not talking about the game?” Adrien teased, the curiosity started to eat away.

“Yeah yeah I was.” Luka spoke but turned his face away.

“Nope.” Adrien smiled. The truth was he was only teasing his friend, it was possible that Luka was talking about the game, but he wanted to banter about it. So he made a face as if he regarded his friend very seriously and expected an answer. He probably looked silly, but it worked.

“Look it is not my secret to tell.” Luka whispered, the boy was obviously feeling uncomfortable.

“Okay, sorry.” Adrien apologized because he saw that his friend was becoming tense. But the curiosity got better of him. “But yesterday you made me reveal my secret and I trust you’ll to the same to whoever … “

Adrien did not finish his sentence. Luka walked away to grab his guitar. He needed to calm down, so he sat down and strummed the strings. To make things worse, Adrien followed. He rubbed his friend’s shoulders.

“Look, she loves you, okay?” Luka muttered. He could not hold it in any more. It was a huge secret to keep and the four of them were together again and that conversation already made him think that Adrien already knew and … he could not hold it in any more.

“Who?” Adrien inquired and looked towards the girls instinctively. He knew Kagami liked him, but he never imagined her feelings wet so far to actually l…

“Marinette.” Luka muttered. There it was, it was out, he had to say it. He expected the boy already knew anyway, he expected Marinette told as much to Adrien already yesterday. That was the plan him and Kagami had made, to be more open about their feelings, because neither Luka nor Kagami ever hid what they felt.

Adrien’s hands stopped moving.

“But of course.” Adrien grinned.

Luka looked up to see the other boy’s face.

“I love all my friends.” Adrien continued.

Luka gripped his guitar really strongly.

“I’m sure Marinette loves all her friends too.” The blonde boy smiled gently.

“Yes, she does.” Luka could not say no to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... and please don't kill me ;)


	41. His Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel meddles.  
> Adrien has friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit on Lila. I did 'some research' even for previous fic and could not find a subject where Lila was exceptionally good but could not find it (I wanted one for the plot here too but then I abandoned the idea). But her she becomes preoccupied with hurting Hannah and Marinette so she forgets about homework and assignments.

His date

Lila was waiting on a bench. A limousine parked behind her.

“I’m glad you called for me, thank you for putting so much trust in me, sir.” Lila greeted. The truth was she expected the call, she waited eagerly, she would have requested the meeting, somehow, trough Nathalie. “Can we talk about the next photo shoot then? Why haven’t we done that already?”

“We’ll talk about that later.” Gabriel replied harshly.

“I'm very honoured to be able to protect Adrien.” Lila cut in. She was going to deal with her other business then. She wasted enough time trying to deal with the menace(s) on her own. “But that has become increasingly difficult due to your son’s actions. Your son deserves better than those friends of his. You should put a stop to that. All the girls are competing for his attention.”

The last words were not received as a bad thing by Gabriel. He might have even twitched a smile.

“Chloe is being difficult. Kagami is a complete disappointment. That Marinette dummy and the new student Hannah are particularly hideous.” Lila continued to talk.

“Kagami was Adrien’s official date on several events. I expected you to protect Adrien from Marinette and all the others you said were a bad influence.” Gabriel replied flatly. He was not there to discuss his son, but if Lila insisted, he might as well collect some more information.

“And the official dates, I thought I should be doing that!” Lila suggested. “I am your muse.”

“About that new girl, Hannah ...” The man inquired and disregarded the last suggestion.

“Adrien is tutoring her in French. I mean her! He should be tutoring me. I am the face of the Agreste brand. I am your muse. She is just a nobody, she lied about her citizenship. I bet she is in the country illegally.” Lila continued.

Gabriel tightened up his lips. That was not what he came for. He was not going to be bothered with a student his son was tutoring if Nathalie cleared it. He checked the time and decided to go straight to the point. He needed particular person(s) akumatized.

“Are you familiar with the Cesaire twins?” The man asked sternly.

“Oh yes, I babysit them all the time. So Alya can go on her dates with Nino. I babysit his little brother Chris too. They simply adore me, one time we did … “ Lila was not able to stop bragging about herself.

“Excellent, could you make your next meeting … slightly less enjoyable … for them?” Gabriel suggested. The fact that Nino’s brother would be there made the plan even better. Ladybug would probably bring both the fox necklace and the turtle bracelet. And the two of the temporary wielders would be together. “You could perhaps blame it on her older sister.”

“Of course.” Lila grinned wickedly.

“Good, now we wait for your success and for the new garments that have to be made.” The man spoke coldly.

“I was hoping we could do it one of these days, perhaps even today … “ Lila suggested with false sweetness in her voice.

“Oh we can do it today, the garments are just the right size for your replacement.” Gabriel threatened calmly with slight amusement in his tone. That was his punishment for the failure of the last photo shoot. The girl was akumatized twice in a span of several days, and although she was a dangerous akuma, she was beaten without any need for the extra heroes, so she was becoming obsolete for that purpose.

“Of course, we can wait for the new garments. It would be such a shame to miss on this opportunity … “ Lila continued to ramble long after Gabriel closed the car window and the car drove away.

“Hi Alya.” Lila greeted with false sweetness. “I was thinking. You and Nino are not on the best of terms lately. Yeah. Well maybe the two of you could have a nice evening together, you know, just the two of you, and then you two could talk and you would learn what he’s been up to and you know maybe learn from him what the rest of the people he’s been with have been up to. You know … Yes I can even babysit Ella and Etta and Chris if you need me to. I have some spare time today. Yes of course. Bye.” It had to be as soon as possible, the sooner she did what the man asked from her the sooner she was going for that photo shoot with Adrien.

Nino was the one who had resolutely said no to Alya the moment he heard just who exactly was supposed to babysit Chris. He really wanted to meet up with her. He missed her. At the first moment he assumed it was Nora who would stay with the kids. But it wasn’t. It was Lila, and the boy said no. He felt slightly guilty for brushing his girlfriend away like that, he wanted to talk to her, but not at all costs.

“You’re late.” It was a simple statement, but the voice of Gabriel Agreste echoed through the empty lobby of the Agreste mansion.

“I’m sorry father.” Adrien bowed his head, mostly to hide his face that showed how the boy was not sorry at all, he spent really nice time with his friends. He made it back to the mansion just in time for his Chinese tutor. “Fencing took longer and I went for a walk with Kagami after that.”

“We are going to discuss this after your Chinese.” Gabriel turned around and walked away with his hands on his back.

Adrien sighed. Whatever punishment awaited him he was ready to take it, and now he had one more hour to fear what was going to happen to him. He was just recently reminded how his father pulled him out of school.

The Chinese tutor was a young university student that was tutoring his native language to earn his keep and scholarship. Chinese lesson was dull, he wasn’t really in it until his tutor asked Adrien to pick the subject. So he did. It was a subject of citizenship and staying in France. Adrien practised his Chinese by telling the story of Hannah as he explained her ordeal. Young man was more than happy to give answers.

“France will not expel a minor.” The tutor stated simply.

Adrien listened to the words in disbelief.

“My friend is studying law.” The young tutor continued with a smile.

And that was it. Adrien had good news for Hannah. She was safe. His face lit up.

“Don’t get me wrong. Being stateless is no fun. I’m sure it’s not that simple. But the right to education is granted by international agreements that France had signed.” Those words from his tutor made Adrien flatten his smile a little bit, but it was a huge piece of good news, he could not wait to tell that to Hannah. He felt like a hero, even the civilian Adrien could save and protect his friends. His lesson had finished. He walked into the dining room high on his latest discovery. Even his father was there to have the dinner with his son.

Adrien was hungry and wanted to eat.

His father wanted to talk.

That was fine.

But Gabriel did not want his son to eat while they were talking.

So Adrien sat there, a full plate of food before him, and the boy had to sit still, ignore the food and listen to his father obediently.

Even Plagg was restless. There was cheese on that plate.

“You are spending increasingly more time with Mlle Tsurugi.” Gabriel started.

Adrien wanted to say something but his father raised his hand to silence him.

“I haven’t punished you yet for your escape from the Bourgeois anniversary party.” The man continued.

The boy gulped.

“Mlle Tsurugi was taken back to Japan by her mother to be reminded of her family traditions and obligations.” Gabriel continued.

Kagami gave slightly different explanation for her travel. Adrien wanted to say that she was back.

“I did not object your socialization with Mlle Tsurugi so far.” Gabriel continued.

He did not object? Adrien was expected by his father to take her on dates for official events. The boy did not even mind that. He liked spending time with her, she was his friend.

“It has been brought to my attention that the visit to Japan did not bring up the qualities in Mlle Tsurugi that were expected.” The man connected the tips of his fingers. “She socializes with other people.”

What was that supposed to mean? Was Kagami expected to ‘socialize’ only with Adrien? She had so few friends. Luka and Marinette were inappropriate company for Kagami according to his father? What about him? What about Adrien? Was he allowed to ‘socialize’? (Note: this implies Adrien would not even question why his father knew that about Kagami).

“It might be suitable for her to indulge in such acquaintances if her mother allows so.” Gabriel continued. “But _you_ represent _my_ company in the public eye.” The man stressed the words ‘you’ and ‘my’.

Adrien felt his world was going to crumble.

“The press will find all the connections of Mlle Tsurugi and in turn connect them to you and my company. I can’t have that.” Each word sounded like a prison sentence. A really long prison sentence.

“You can ‘socialize’ with your _friends_ in your _free_ time.” Gabriel continued, but the way he spoke free was expected to be interpreted as never, and he spat out the word friends.

“But for official events you are expected to take Mlle Rossi as your date. She is the face of the brand now just like you.” And there his father assigned him the worst possible guard and cellmate in one person.

Adrien wanted to protest, the food before him forgotten.

“You are dismissed.” Gabriel spoke and took his fork.

“But.” Adrien really intended to protest.

“Your dinner shall be brought to your room as a punishment for being late today.” The man finished giving his sentence and put the fork into his mouth. He was satisfied with himself, the move should make Kagami so agitated that the girl would get akumatized, but his plan did not stop there, oh no, his plan was to get Tomoe akumatized first, Kagami would go to the event anyway, he would chose the last moment on Friday to inform his business associate that Kagami was not Adrien’s date and get akumatized, then Ladybug should look for Kagami to help her and then he would akumatize Ryuko because Adrien chose Lila, it was perfect …

Adrien dragged his feet away. Nathalie ‘updated’ the boy that his request to attend the charity event on Friday was approved and he was going to take his official date with him. The dinner followed him and was served on his desk. The door closed and he was alone. Well, not really.

“I can’t believe how long that man can talk. And I mean, what was the point of not eating the food, it was right there? And he was talking all the time you could have eaten and you were able to sneak some cheese for me would you? Or was he staring at you the whole time? Yes he was, wasn’t he? Then you would not have been able to sneak out some cheese for me and you were expected to eat it yourself and … are you listening to me at all kid? Give. Me. Some. Cheese.” Plagg ranted and demanded.

“Just take it.” Adrien felt his whole body was shaking.

Plagg gulped the cheese. As much as there was. With slightly filled stomach, and a cheese free plate, the tiny god of destruction was able to focus on something else.

“You learned something really good today, kid.” Plagg spoke. “Your friends love you, that new girl can’t be expelled that easily, your math teacher is not that bad.”

“I thought you slept through math.” Adrien cut in with a smile.

“And miss all that show? No way.” Plagg snickered. “Now why don’t you eat this dinner and then call up pigtails and the fencer girl and that guitar boy and let them know what happened. I’m sure they have ideas how to help you.” The tiny god of destruction grinned. “And you might also let Hannah know what you learned today, she would sleep better.” The boy should also sleep better after that.

After eating his food, several clumsy attempts and after he added Nino to the group there were five faces on the screen, all smiling.

“A minor can’t be expelled from France.” Adrien announced. There were cheers, there were tears of joy, thumbs up and all other signs.

“But .. I also have some bad news.” Adrien took a deep but shaky breath. “From now on I have to take Lila for dates.” The boy was crying.

“Dude.” Nino shook his head.

Marinette clenched her fists.

Kagami glared at the screen.

“Oh.” Luka looked down.

“Do you have to go on dates?” Hannah asked timidly after long silence because nobody else knew what to say. For her, the solution was really simple.

“That charity event on Friday. I’m expected to bring a date.” Adrien explained slowly.

“You don’t have to come.” Hannah smiled. She never expected her classmates there to begin with.

“But I want to.” Adrien cried.

“We will think of something.” Marinette stuttered out, but there was determination in her eyes.

“Yes! We will fight her.” Kagami added.

“Dude, this sucks, but we are with you!” Nino smiled.

“Hey, your whole class is going there anyway, it is going to be okay. Would you like to hear a new tune I got?” Luka proposed.

Then Luka played his guitar, the melody turned everyone’s thoughts in a different direction.

Marinette took that moment to collect her thoughts. Luka was right, Lila was going to be there anyway, probably, there was no way to avoid that … although she sometimes missed their after school gatherings, actually often, so she hoped … or perhaps Marinette avoided those gatherings where Lila was? But there was a huge difference, this was the first time that Lila was going somewhere as Adrien’s date. Anyway, Luka was right and she had to think of something.

“Hannah” Marinette called after the music finished. “Can you tell us what kind of event will that be?” She needed more information.

“Um I … nobody ever goes there except … people like me, other people from the centre and volunteers. Some guests.” Hannah stuttered out.

For some reason, Adrien grinned.

“But our whole school is invited.” Nino countered.

“Exactly.” Kagami nodded.

“That means only students from our school, actually.” Marinette shrugged.

“Are there any reporters?” Adrien asked casually.

“Reporters?” Hannah was trying to remember. “There is one guy with a fancy camera. He documents activities.”

“No media?” Kagami inquired.

Hannah shook her head.

“And what do you do there?” Luka raised his eyebrows.

“Some people play instruments, it is like a small concert, there are paintings … the manager gives speech, ceramics students made, other handmade things … “ Hannah was not even sure, she did not remember and she was there for only one previous occasion. “We can dance.” Actually, they just played some random music from the stereo and danced to it until it was time to go home.

“Okay, and donations?” Adrien inquired.

“Everything is for sale.” Hannah nodded.

“Oh, and what is the starting price?” Adrien asked.

“Starting price?” Hannah did not know.

“Like in bidding.” The boy explained.

“Bidding?” She made a strange face. “I … I don’t know.” She looked to the floor.

Then Hannah’s father walked into the screen.

“Hi guys … and girls.” He smiled.

“Hi!” Everyone waved and smiled a bit too widely.

“Are you asking about the charity event in the community centre?” The man inquired.

There five affirmative answers.

“It is nothing formal. You can donate some cash, toys, books, school stuff or even good winter clothes and shoes or electronic devices … “ The man listed items from his memory.

“Oh.” Adrien was at different charity events but the donations were made exclusively in money, large amounts, not carried around in cash, but transferred electronically. Or there was an auction of some fancy art, or fashion.

“What about food?” Marinette asked.

“There are few sandwiches around and some juice. And donated candy.” He smiled at his daughter who huffed and turned away for a moment. “You could bring your own food to share if you can, but please do not feel obliged to bring enough for everyone.”

“What about the items for sale?” Kagami inquired.

“Oh, the artwork is from one to ten euros, usually.” The man smiled. “It is a symbolic price, people leave as much as they want.”

Adrien and Kagami gaped.

“Thanks man.” Luka replied.

“Cool dude.” Nino beamed. “Can I bring my little brother?”

“Of course.” Hannah smiled.

“Nino, did you mean that as a donation?” Marinette asked urgently.

“You got me.” The boy laughed.

Then everyone laughed at Nino’s attempt to donate his little brother.

“That might be against the rules but I can check for you.” Hannah’s father replied into the screen and then looked at his daughter “Don’t get any ideas.” The man said teasingly.

Hannah made a face.

“I’ll check the rules.” She whispered to the screen.

Everyone laughed again.

“Okay, bedtime.” Hannah’s father called from somewhere outside the screen.

Hannah waved everyone and left.

Nino had to go next because his donation demanded his attention.

The others waved each other and after several good nights, the group video chat was finished.

Adrien sighed, he felt much better. That evening he went to bed without hopping on roofs first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel is into it more to akumatize Tomoe and Kagami than to reward Lila.


	42. Glamorous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the morning before the school starts and Lila has an announcement.   
> And she gets someone akumatized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As (only) hinted in previous chapter, not all problems are solved for Hannah.

Glamorous

“I am going on a date with Adrien Agreste on Friday afternoon.” Lila exclaimed excitedly for the whole school to hear, at least everyone who was on the stairs of the school. There were ‘oohs’ and there were jealous stares and there were questions about the occasion and where. She walked through the school gates surrounded by her entourage.

“Adrien Agreste and me are going on this charity event for our date on Friday.” She announced in the school yard. The crowds either cheered or pretended to cheer, everyone just had to know all the details. And Lila supplied about the when and the where and the what. She wanted them to know, she needed them to know, she gloated in her glory.

“Oh it is going to be fabulous. Adrien and me are so used to those charity galas.” She continued to brag as she found just the perfect spot to tell her tall tale. She ranted on and on about how glamorous those charity galas were and the kids around swallowed each word and savoured it like a treasure, it was like a dream come true.

Adrien arrived to school feeling happy. He saw Marinette and Hannah were running towards school, but he was in no position to pick them up this time. His friend was so nice, his everyday Ladybug, she loved all her friends, she even loved Chat … oops, brain, don’t even go there. Fortunately, Nino was just there to distract him. They were sneaking around the school yard and avoided Lila who was telling her tall tale so loudly they could not help themselves but overhear.

“When did that become a gala?” Nino asked Adrien while both of them passed on the sidelines, unnoticed.

Adrien felt how his stomach sunk, he was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was going on a date with Lila.

The boy sneaked into the locker room with Nino and huffed relieved that they pulled through. Then he turned around only to meet Chloe, who was fuming with rage, but it was Chloe so it was well styled and respectable kind of rage.

“You told me you are going with Kagami and it was some despicable event in the community centre.” Chloe held her hands on her hips and leaned into Adrien’s space.

“My father decided that I’m going with Lila and it is the same event.” The boy smiled apologetically.

“Your father would not tell you to go on a date with me?” Chloe stomped her foot.

“He didn’t.” Adrien shrugged.

“And … well if it is that event then I don’t care.” She flipped her pony tail as she turned around and then she pointed her nose very high.

“Chloe, I’m sorry, this was not my decision, I do not even want to go with Lila … “ Adrien wanted his childhood friend to feel better. Nope, he did not wish that his father proposed to take Chloe, she was also a piece of cake, but she was his childhood friend and he still did not want to hurt her. He just did not want to go on a date with her.

“I don’t want to hear about it.” She stomped away. She was hurt. It was not just the fact that Adrien did not express his utter devastation about not going to a date with her, she did not expect that after she learned he was in fact dating Kagami. Gabriel decided to replace Kagami with Lila and she was able to see that the boy did not like that. She was not blind, thank you very much.

“Dude.” Nino shook his head.

Adrien slumped his shoulders and went towards his locker.

Marinette was running to school after she caught up with Hannah. The two of them ascended the stairs together and burst through the school door unnoticed. Right there, in the middle of the school yard stood Lila surrounded by the largest crowd Marinette ever saw around the liar.

“On my date with Adrien, there is going to be a concert and then an auction.” Lila announced. Her eyes glanced towards the school gates and she stressed the words to make sure she was heard over there.

Marinette did not need to hear more, she knew, it was so good that she learned about this last night, otherwise she would have exploded right then and there, she grabbed Hannah’s hand and both girls ran to the locker room. She needed a plan, she needed a plan this instant and she had none yet.

The goal was to never let Lila to go on a date with Adrien. That was her goal. But Tikki refused to transform her and kidnap Lila. Well, she still had until Friday afternoon to persuade the tiny goddess to cooperate. The next solution Marinette contemplated was to cause the liar some allergic reaction or digestive issues, but she was rather certain that all illnesses Lila listed were a lie, so her attempts would have been futile. And the forms she was supposed to fill and return to principal Damocles were still empty. Oh, what was she going to do?

Hannah was quiet. The conversation with her father flattened her mood, to put it mildly. Happy as a radio, last night she told her father how a minor could not be expelled from France. The man returned a small smile and patted her head.

“That is good news for you daughter, you may be a minor, but your mother and me are certainly not. So it depends on the authorities how they see your little trick.” Her father looked happy and concerned at the same time.

Hannah intended to never mention this to her friends. They had sufficient problems as they were. She did not want to burden her friends, she already felt like a burden to her family. She walked to the classroom along with Marinette, but it was as if each of them was alone, in their own world full of problems.

Ms Bustier took attendance and then proceeded to teach. Lila was high on cloud nine although Adrien practically ignored her existence.

“Oh I forgot to bring in my homework, I was so busy getting ready for the charity gala where I’m going as Adrien’s date this Friday.” Lila produced in place of filled in worksheets. Finally, she was going on a real charity event with a real celebrity, and it was Adrien Agreste, as her date. She could barely contain her excitement and pretend to be nonchalant about it as if she was going charity galas with prince Ali every other Saturday.

Ms Bustied gave one quick look to Adrien, the boy sighed but returned one firm nod. There was no way for him to deny that. But he did turn in his homework.

The teacher sighed and extended the deadline.

The lecture dragged on. Marinette was paying attention and took notes, but her mind kept nagging her about the fact that she had absolutely no ideas at all on what to do to save Adrien from his date. Alya was quiet, there was no chatting about the most recent akuma fight (it was Lila/Volpina) nor about Lila and her most recent achievement. At least Alya had the decency to not talk to Marinette about the fact that Lila was going on a date with Adrien. In fact, Alya had her own heartache. Last night Nino clearly refused to go on a date with her. That never happened before. She became worried. He did say that they can go out some other time so it wasn’t as if she got dumped and it was a school night and it was rather sudden. Well, she was going with him to the community centre on Friday afternoon, she was going to clear it all out then.

“Everyone had passed the test and can join us in the science lab.” Mme Mendeleev announced as she entered the lab. There was a collective sigh of relief although many of them already knew their results.

“Today we are going to experiment with … “ Mme Mendeleev began to teach.

“Excuse me, could I pair up with Adrien today, we have to ...” Lila was speaking in that sly and sweet tone of hers.

Adrien visibly shuddered and there was a look of panic on him and he probably hissed ‘no’ although that might have been Plagg too. Not that anyone noticed the difference.

“You have to do the experiments I tell you to do, now please!” The teacher continued to explain the experiment.

Lila basked in her glory in the morning before the class, she continued during the short breaks they had between classes, but her announcement and her fame lasted only so far. The students were engrossed in their own lives and the studies they were about to perform. Besides, she was going on a date with Adrien and Marinette was not crushed and in tears. That was odd. That was suspiciously odd.

But she had a plan. She knew Hannah’s secret and if principal Damocles was not taking her seriously, she was going to find someone who was. She left Nathaniel to deal with the experiments while she observed the classroom. Then her eyes laid on Chloe. Of course, the mayor’s daughter was going to help her weather she liked it or not. Lila had her ways to manipulate the heiress, although she seldom used them.

It was time to the deliver the results of the first set of experiments and Lila totally forgot to do anything about them. Apparently most of the students were finished really quickly. If she only paid attention, she could have done it for sure, but she had more urgent matters to attend to. Well, her low performance in school was only temporary, she was going to make it all up. She glanced at her bench mate.

“Oh, Nathaniel, could I borrow your notes for a moment?” Without looking, Lila snatched the papers that Nathaniel was scribbling on.

But those were not the notes about the experiments.

There, on those pages, were numerous drawings of Lila, but none of them was flattering, Lila snarled and stared, her face showed hate and despise, she looked like a villainess not a heroine.

“What’s this?” She demanded.

Nathaniel jumped to snatch the papers, but Lila moved her hand high in the air and the boy’s second attempt only scattered the papers around the floor. The boy did not want to be caught doodling images for his next coming book in science class.

Adrien, Marinette, well most of the class turned around, they could recognize it was Lila on those drawings but not more details than that. Because Lila collected them with record speed.

“Just something … doesn’t matter.” Nathaniel tried to get his drawings back again. He managed to collect a few sheets himself.

Lila tore them into little pieces.

Nathaniel stormed away from the classroom.

“Nath … “ Marinette called after the boy. She knew she had little time. She ran after him. She was surprised to find Adrien at her heels. She continued to run past the toilets. It was a relief that Nathaniel did not hide in the boy’s restroom because Marinette would not have followed. She finally caught up with the boy.

“Nathaniel, what happened?” Marinette whispered out of breath.

“She tore my drawings.” The boy stated the obvious and continued to run.

Only then Marinette noticed that Adrien was not behind her back any more.

She was running after Nathaniel when she saw the violet butterfly.

She could not transform right there.

She called his name.

He turned around.

She shouted the warning.

But it was too late, the violet butterfly got absorbed in the pen he still held in his hand.

She was running towards him.

Nathaniel transformed into the Evilustrator again.

Marinette rolled her eyes.

Evilustrator watched her carefully, he did not attack, she kept calm and quiet.

“What did you draw?” Marinette asked quietly. “Can you draw it again?”

Evilustrator scribbled something on his notepad and Lila appeared next to Marinette, it was Lila who glared at someone in front of her.

“Huh.” Marinette huffed. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

But Evilustrator scribbled again and another Lila appeared, this one had a hateful expression.

Marinette took it bravely, she knew now why Lila tore those papers.

“Hey Princess, it is you and me again?” Chat Noir greeted.

Evilustrator attacked the notepad with his pen, whatever monster he intended to create was going to hit them.

“Wait wait wait.” Marinette called. “Chat and his timing.” She muttered, but the hero heard her clearly.

Evilustrator stopped whatever he intended to draw or erase

“We both want you to draw whatever you had on those sketches.” Marinette spoke. “Please” She added.

“Please.” Chat Noir repeated and fluttered his eyelashes for good measure. Then he smirked and winked at Marinette.

Another angry Lila appeared and then another, there was evil grin, there was a nasty frown.

“I never knew her face was so expurressional.” Chat noted.

Evilustrator smirked and drew more Lila’s.

Marinette glanced around and noticed Alya was filming from the other end of the hallway.

“Oh this one feline as a villain.” Chat noted about the most recent Lila that appeared.

Marinette and Chat were slowly taking steps forward and closer to Evilustrator.

One more Lila, one more step, and Chat quickly extended his baton, hit the pen Evilustrator was using and snatched it.

“Run” Chat ordered Marinette.

“Break it” She shouted back while she was running away.

Marinette disappeared in a toilet.

Chat observed the pen, jumped away from Evilustrator and broke it.

The violet butterfly fluttered away and Evilustrator turned back into Nathaniel.

Chat followed the violet butterfly with his eyes and wondered if he should use cataclysm on the akuma.

But then a red yoyo with black spots captured the butterfly and a white one was released.

Ladybug jumped and landed next to Chat.

“Where were you?” Chat demanded although his smile was warm and wide in greeting his beloved lady.

“Oh, I think you and Marinette handled it perfectly.” She smirked.

“See, I told you … “ He wanted to mention Marinette and Multimouse again but a red finger covered his mouth.

“Not here, not now.” Ladybug warned and glanced towards Nathaniel on one side and Alya on the other.

Chat nodded and Ladybug removed her finger.

“See you later.” They both promised and went away to transform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a bit lazy to write a more complicated akuma fight.


	43. Damage Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the akuma fight, more schemes and Adrien tries to be helpful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Planting the seeds of doubt.

Damage control

“Oh, Tikki, when Chat arrived I thought I would never be able to hide and transform.” Marinette whispered while she gave a pink macaron to her tiny red kwami.

“That is okay, Marinette, you were trying to prevent Nathaniel from getting akumatized in the first place.” Tikki spoke softly.

“But I failed anyway.” The girl groaned.

“At least you tried.” The tiny red bug smiled.

“It is all because of Lila, she tore his drawings and he got akumatized over it.” Marinette looked at her kwami.

“He did but ...” Tikki tried to counter.

“We should do more to prevent her from getting other people akumatized.” Marinette continued to defend her case.

“But you can’t prevent them all and … “ The tiny red bug knew where this was going.

“For example Adrien has to go on a date with her to that charity event and ...” The girl continued.

“No Marinette I told you, we can’t kidnap nor torture nor threaten Lila, you would be using her means, you would be just like her Marinette.” Tikki warned.

“Um, okay.” Marinette deflated, that was the same conversation she already had last night and being compared to Lila was somehow even worse than being compared to Chloe.

“You handled that akuma rather well even as Marinette.” Tikki chirped.

“Yes and now Chat Noir will want me to be Multimouse again.” Marinette sighed.

“Ladybug praised Marinette to Chat, you know.” Tikki winked and took one more bite of her macaron.

“Did I just say to Chat Noir that the civilian me and Chat Noir handled the akuma perfectly?” Marinette rolled her eyes.

Tikki hummed her confirmation while she was munching on her cookie.

“I praised Chat Noir and Marinette to Chat Noir, that will inflate his ego and I will never see the end of him asking for Multimouse.” The girl groaned.

Tikki took one more bite of her macaron and winked.

“Oh, let’s just go back to the class.” Marinette hid the tiny red goddess of creation and the half eaten macaron in her purse and got out the bathroom stall.

Chat Noir hid in the bathroom stall to detransform. The boy’s bathroom was empty and he needed to go back to the classroom quickly. Besides, he could keep an eye on Nathaniel as a civilian so there was no need to linger around as Chat Noir.

“Ladybug said Marinette and I handled the akuma perfectly.” Adrien sighed dreamily.

“Camembert?” Plagg demanded.

“She actually praised me.” The boy grinned.

“It is not as if that never happened before.” Plagg muttered. “Now cheese!”

“And Marinette, she was so awesome.” Adrien put his chin on his hand and sighed again.

“Yes, pigtails is awesome, now give me my Camembert!” Plagg was loosing his nerve.

“She kept him busy although he was producing more and more figures of Lila all around.” The boy shuddered at the memory.

“Another girlfriend of yours.” Plagg was exasperated. “I demand my cheese.”

“It must have been horrible for her after she was threatened by that liar.” Adrien was giving no signs of ever reaching for the cheese.

“Cam! Emb! Ert!” Plagg shouted straight in front of Adrien’s face.

The boy produced a piece of cheese just in time. Someone entered the boy’s bathroom.

Adrien was hidden in a stall, he heard footsteps and a sniffle. The cheese triangle was already consumed and the boy hid his kwami in his shirt before he opened the stall door.

“Nathaniel?” Adrien called to the boy.

Nathaniel turned away and hid his tears.

Adrien was washing his hands and observed the other boy carefully.

“I got akumatized again.” Nathaniel sobbed.

“It is okay. She hurt you. Intentionally, You should not feel bad about being akumatized for that.” Adrien tried to talk.

“No. No. No. She was angry with me because she did not look nice in those drawings.” Nathaniel continued.

“But she looked like that sometimes, didn’t she?” Adrien inquired.

“I shouldn’t have.” Nathaniel turned away and shook his head.

“Let’s go back to the class.” Adrien proposed.

“You can go.” Nathaniel dismissed him through his tears.

Adrien was worried. The other boy blamed himself and was not feeling better. If he left the other boy in this condition, he could get akumatized again, but the boy was out of ideas. And when he tried to approach Nathaniel, the boy simply flinched away from him. Then Adrien got out from the bathroom quietly, he was going to find help, and he needed to do that quickly. Fortunately, the best person to do that was just there.

“Marinette.” Adrien called for her when he saw her in the corridor. She first froze in place then she turned around. She just detransformed and was going back to the classroom.

“I … ahem … “ She flailed her arms all around her face and then finally covered her burning cheeks.

“Nathaniel is hiding and does not want to come back to class.” The boy motioned with his hand towards the door right behind him, that door lead to the boys restroom. “He is blaming himself for hurting Lila. I’m afraid he might get akumatized again. Do you think you could talk to him? He might listen to you.”

She nodded before the implications of what she agreed to hit her.

“Thank you Marinette. You’re so amazing.” The boy beamed at her, took her hand and lead her – straight into the boy’s restroom.

Marinette was already few steps inside, the door slammed shut behind her when she realized where exactly she was. Adrien was holding her hand. She stared at their joined hands. She was with Adrien, in the boy’s restroom, holding hands? But then she heard a sniffle and then a sob. That reminded her of her mission.

“Nathaniel.” She spoke gently. “Please return to the class.” She asked quietly.

There was no answer.

“It wasn’t your fault. Lila is sometimes mean. She was mean to me too and I almost got akumatized for that too.” Marinette continued. Adrien held her hand tighter. He felt so guilty for giving her the advice to let Lila continue with her lies. He wanted to apologize, but this was not the time to do that.

Nathaniel visibly relaxed.

“And then she even got me akumatized the second time, she got half the school akumatized that time.” The girl continued to talk.

Nathaniel turned around.

“I have an idea, why don’t you pair up with me for the rest of the class and Lila can work with Alya.” The girl proposed. She winced a little as she spoke and she clenched Adrien’s hand a bit stronger then she intended while she was speaking, but she did it anyway. And she was sure Alya would agree.

Nathaniel walked over to the sink where he washed his face. He did not say a word but it was clear what he agreed to. The three of them slowly returned to the class.

Meanwhile, Lila was putting a show in the back of the class ever since Nathaniel ran out. She knew other students probably noticed what was on those drawings and she needed to justify her actions.

“Why did he draw me in such an awful way. I was barely able to recognize myself. I’m not that ugly. And he made my face so distorted. He made me look so nasty. I’m not like that. Why did he do that? Who made him do that? I’m sure he would never do something like that on his own.” The girl was putting up a show. “Someone must have persuaded Nathaniel to draw those ugly pictures of me and make me so upset that I tear them down and look cruel to you.”

Alya returned to the class and proudly announced that Nathaniel was akumatized, but was also quickly defeated by Chat Noir and Marinette. Alya could not hide the excitement as her best friend faced an akuma side by side with a superhero. She was going to drag that girl along to make videos of akuma fights in the future, no more excuses.

Lila scowled when she heard praise of her nemesis. That was not the plan. Marinette was supposed to be the bad guy, the one who manipulated Nathaniel to draw those awful drawings. Everybody was still talking about how it was Marinette who encouraged Marc and Nathaniel to work together on their comic book so it was a safe bet that everyone would believe a story where Marinette persuaded Nathaniel to do this. But now Alya was making Marinette look like a hero? That was unacceptable, she had to do something about that.

The teacher thanked for the report and tried to resume teaching, but there were questions about the akuma fight from the class.

“Calm down, you can discuss that during the lunch break, I am certain our resident journalist will be more than happy to indulge your curiosity.” The teacher warned.

Alya was quietly updating her Ladyblog while Mme Mendeleev was explaining what experiments were they supposed to do and how to compute the results.

Mme Mendeleev agreed to Marinette’s plan and Alya moved back to take Nathaniel’s place next to Lila. That would give the journalist an opportunity to get a backstory of how Nathaniel got akumatized. She was going to the bottom of this.

Nathaniel slowly walked over to his new spot in the lab, his head bowed as he avoided looks from his classmates. But there was murmur of understanding and a pat on his back from Nino, Adrien and Ivan, so the boy calmed down and decided to give his attention to the task before him. Marinette made him draw sketches of the experiments while she was performing them. They computed their results together. The teacher was explaining the problems and what results were expected. Marinette set aside all her other problems, Adrien’s date and the forms she still haven’t even started to fill in.

Hannah was playing with gyroscope like it was a plain whirly which obviously annoyed the teacher. She was restless, finished with the tasks long ago, she listened to the teacher more because this was an opportunity to learn more French than science. She slept good on the news that Adrien told her, but now she wanted to help the boy. What was all that fuss about dates anyway? Why couldn’t they just go there? Or not? And now Lila tore those drawings. Hannah saw a few of them rather clearly. The drawings were good, she saw Lila make those faces before, she even directed a few at her. Did that girl also threaten Nathaniel somehow? And how? Hannah spun the gyroscope again and watched it dance over the desk.

The teacher gave additional assignment for Hannah just to make the girl busy. She obviously had some extra energy to waste.

After the bell rang, Hannah and Marinette escaped the science lab first, they were going to the bakery to get a few snacks and then they were going to meet the rest of the group and make a plan how to destroy Adrien’s date, or preferably, to prevent it from happening at all.

Nathaniel followed them to meet Marc and let the other boy know how the idea for a villain in their next comic book had just backfired. The two boys were excellent in hiding even while in plain sight as both were shy. Marinette was relieved to see that Nathaniel was okay and strolled away from school together with his friend.

Nino and Adrien were about to follow the girls, but they took too much time waiting and now decided that they were going to be the last ones to leave. That posed another difficulty of avoiding Lila hanging onto the blonde model. Adrien engaged himself into a small talk with Mme Mendeleev to make sure neither Lila nor Chloe dragged him away.

Lila glared at the boy’s back and left the classroom with Alya and the rest of the class. She was high and she intended to remain there. Of course there were questions about the drawings.

“I can’t believe this.” Rose piped in. “The last time Nathaniel got akumatized it was when he was drawing Marinette during the science class, he was so in love.” The girl cooed.

Lila grinned wickedly. Oh what a nice save she just got. She threw away all other excuses and explanations that she invented in her head.

“That is how Marinette made him draw such ugly drawings of me.” She clapped her hands. “Oh, poor Nathaniel, I feel so sorry for the boy, to love such an evil girl.” She continued. “And she went right after him.”

“That is because she did no want Nathaniel akumatized.” Juleka muttered. She was there mostly because Rose did not leave yet. Juleka was not going to confront Lila whatever Luka told her about her classmate. Besides, Juleka knew how much of a crush Marinette had for Adrien, and what kind of plans she was able to put together, operation Secret Garden was a testimony to that. And now Lila had a date with Adrien, that could have triggered the designer to make one more of her plans. But then there were also warnings from Luka about Lila and how the girl could be nasty. Juleka knew nasty, Chloe was nasty, Lila was nice and exciting, at least she always had nice stories to tell. Lila also got to model with Adrien. Juleka wanted to be a model. Lila accomplished that. There was something to admire there.

It was time, the morning classes were over, the science class was finished and the lunch break had just begun, Alya proudly showed her video of the akuma fight. She played it for everyone to see, but even this time, Lila stole the show.

“See, Marinette controlled the akuma, she told Evilustrator to draw me in such way to make me look bad. It is all because she is so jealous of me because it is me who is going to the charity gala with Adrien this Friday.” Lila was the centre of attention again. “I wish you could all be there, it is going to be so glamorous, we are going to have … “ And she listed all the niceties that she possibly could, the gowns, the suits, the appetizers, caviar and champagne.

Adrien and Nino sneaked through the far end of the hallway while Lila was giving her speech.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Marinette gets to plan how to ruin Adrien's date in the next chapter.


	44. How to ruin a date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group makes plans on how to ruin the date. Or better, how to make it easier on Adrien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is no 'operation secret garden',

How to ruin a date

“I thought I would be finished with filling out those forms for Lila by now.” Marinette muttered to herself while she checked her backpack and noticed the empty forms.

“What?” Hannah inquired. Both girls were in a hurry towards the bakery.

“Forms for Lila.” Marinette whispered as both of them entered the bakery.

“Can I help you with that?” Hannah offered. “I did a lot of forms.” Yeah she did, her parents were always busy and she learned how to fill them out really early in her life. She was not a big fan of administrative forms, but her father literally hated any administrative tasks, and her mother would delegate anything just to catch up on sleep between shifts in any medical facility they worked in at the time. She was rather proud of herself. They trusted her to do it. They trusted her so much that they signed the application forms she filled in even when data about herself was not entirely true.

“Oh dear, we left the lunch for you upstairs.” Sabine said after greeting both girls. She smiled at Hannah, Marinette looked happy with her new friend, much more than during the summer.

“Hi girls, grab some cookies for your way.” Tom greeted from he bakery kitchen.

“I left cooked lunch upstairs.” Sabine reminded from the shop.

Tom sighed and sneaked a box of treats to the girls anyway.

“Thanks papa.” Marinette ran upstairs, Hannah followed.

“Can I see the forms?” Hannah panted once they reached the kitchen upstairs.

“Of course.” Marinette took the forms out from her backpack and spread them over her kitchen table. The two girls glanced over the forms quickly. It looked like a lot of work, complicated and intimidating.

“Um we need some data about the school and … “ Marinette pondered while Hannah simply started to fill in the form. She still remembered what goes where from the time when she filled the generalities of the school for herself.

“All forms have the same beginning.” Hannah smiled.

“Okay” Marinette shrugged.

“Her name, date of birth, citizenship.” Both girls looked at each other. Marinette was quick to remember the data she never wanted to know. She made a face, Hannah noticed.

“When she gets help, she’ll be better.” Hannah spoke encouragingly.

“We’ll be better if this works.” Marinette concluded. She felt Tikki stirred in her purse, but the girl just smiled, she allowed herself to be a little selfish.

They were filling the forms when someone rang at the door, but then the entrance door opened and the whole group entered. This was not the plan, they were supposed to meet at the park.

“Hi Marinette.” Luka greeted. “Your parents sent us upstairs.”

“What are you doing?” Adrien inquired as he looked over the papers that Hannah was filling in.

“We … um.” Marinette connected her index fingers. She completely forgot what she was doing the moment the four of them entered her home. Well, everything was going to be okay if Adrien does not go up in her room, right?

“Help for Lila.” Hannah piped in without even looking.

That made the four teens who just arrived go puzzled even more. Nino adjusted his hat. Adrien raised his eyebrows. Kagami frowned. Luka looked curious.

“You see, yesterday I had to deal with a huge pile of complaints submitted by Lila.” Marinette flailed her hands and exaggerated the height of the pile of papers that she showed with her fingers. “As a class president, of course.” Anything was a good distraction, just keep them in the kitchen and keep them busy.

“Shouldn’t that be your teacher’s job?” Kagami and Luka spoke almost in unison.

“Yes, um, well you see ...” Marinette tried to think of an excuse. “They should do it too but … “

“But your teacher and your school principal are incompetent.” Kagami stated bluntly.

That was probably true, but Marinette would never say it like that about her teacher nor the school principal.

“Okay, but this?” Adrien wanted them to return to the subject.

“Well, Lila claimed that she was ill many times.” Marinette began her explanation.

“Can you help?” Hannah pointed to a specific rectangular part in the form. “We should name an illness or list the symptoms.” She was new in class after all and her two colleagues knew much more than her.

Hannah had to write in really small letters to list everything that Nino, Marinette and Adrien could remember. Luka was eating his sandwich, Kagami was eating her own meal and both looked at each other with wide eyes from time to time while they listened to the list of illnesses.

After that, Marinette could state, as herself, that Lila complained about psychological disorder that made her lie in the other form that requested consultations with the school psychologist.

“Good, all that is left is to collect the signatures.” Marinette wrapped up the papers.

“Finally, I see this was necessary, but let’s deal with that date!” Kagami grinned.

Marinette brought her lunch to the kitchen counter, Hannah shared her food and Adrien his salad.

“So, she is expecting a gala, with fine music, an auction, caviar and champagne.” Nino grinned. Most of the group laughed.

Hannah almost choked.

Luka was patting her back while Kagami was ready to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, but the girl started to breathe.

“Where do we get that?” Hannah asked.

“We don’t.” Adrien reassured her.

“There will be no date.” Marinette stated firmly. “We just have to make sure that there is no date.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Luka inquired.

“Adrien could stay at home.” Hannah proposed and then shrugged. She loved simple solutions.

Marinette made several elaborate plans on how to tie up Lila to some plumbing in school, or maybe she could accidentally spill caramel syrup over the girl’s hair, Marinette was known to be clumsy, or maybe ...

“My father allowed me to spend some time with my friends and I don’t know what excuse to make not to go. It is a charity event, it would be irresponsible of me to just cancel. Besides, Lila would come over for a visit then.” The last thing he said with a shudder.

That sent chills down several spines in the room.

“What if we make her cancel?” Nino proposed. Marinette beamed, she had ideas there.

“She did not want to stop the photo shoot on Sunday even in the pouring rain, I don’t think that is an option.” Adrien sighed.

“So it is a date then.” Luka concluded.

Marinette frowned. What if she used some other kwami from the miracle box? She could teleport the liar somewhere, anywhere that was far enough. Or maybe … her head was full of ideas, none that Tikki would approve of.

“What if I have a heart to heart talk with her after school tomorrow, just before our fencing?” Kagami smirked.

Adrien and Marinette shared a look between themselves, then they looked at Hannah and then they both looked at Kagami and shook their heads.

“She threatened both Marinette and Hannah when one on one, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Adrien also remembered how sly and unpleasant she was when alone with him, but he chose not to mention those tiny details.

“I doubt she would be so unpleasant if I had my foil in my hand.” Kagami raised an eyebrow.

Marinette smiled widely, she was getting more ideas. Luka whistled. Nino adjusted his hat. Adrien laughed he was so happy to see his determined friend. Hannah observed everyone.

“Thanks for the offer Kagami.” Adrien’s tone revealed there was a but coming and everyone deflated. “But she got Marinette expelled from school and I don’t want you to get the same treatment.” Kagami opened her mouth to protest. Marinette shuddered at the memory of what Adrien did to get her back to school. Hannah nodded.

“The problem is that it is Adrien’s father who insists that Adrien should go on a date with Lila. So he should go on a date with Lila or he will have problems with his father. Am I correct?” Luka spoke calmly.

Adrien confirmed.

“So they have to go on a date.” Nino concluded.

Marinette frowned, she sent one guilty look towards Kagami, she remembered when she and Chloe tried to ruin Kagami’s date with Adrien for that film premiere. But this was different, Adrien was here. And now she had to make a plan that would actually include Adrien going on a date with Lila, no kidnapping, no teleportation, no sticky sugary liquids in the girls hair and tying up to the plumbing in the bathroom.

“You are not dressing up, right?” Luka inquired.

“I already explained to Nathalie it is a casual event.” Adrien confirmed.

“You are expected to bring her flowers for the date?” Nino changed the subject slightly.

“Is she allergic to anything for real?” Marinette muttered more to herself than for anyone else.

“Hey, doing that trick with your mother’s spices … “ Kagami grinned.

Marinette was already reaching for her cabinet, she produced a small bottle with crushed bits of mixed spices. But she was becoming more uncertain about the whole scheme.

“It should be something in this colour.” She shrugged.

It was a mixture of red and green and black and yellow. There was no flower in all those colours, but Adrien did not care. He was going to use it. He wondered if he could use it on himself instead of the flowers, just to keep the girl away.

“You have to pick her up if it is a date.” Luka noted.

“Guys, whatever you do, don’t leave me alone with her, please?” Adrien begged.

“It’s your date, how do we do that?” Nino inquired. “It is not like she is expecting a double date.”

“That’s it.” Marinette beamed. “She is expecting journalists, you could take Alya to interview her on your way over to the gala.” She made air quotes for the gala.

That made Adrien smile. Of course, he was going to have his friends in the car with him, with a little luck with the seating arrangements, well he could sit in the front and avoid being in her proximity for the entire journey.

“I can do that.” Nino confirmed as soon as he saw his best bro lit up about the idea. It would make a nice peace offering to his girlfriend.

“Good, I will pick you both up in front of school after fencing.” Adrien beamed.

“If you have fencing.” Kagami noted.

That sent chills down everyone’s spines.

“I will clear that up with Nathalie.” Adrien typed a message.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter. Alya and Nino can wait for you in front of school and you just make sure to pick them up first.” Marinette proposed.

“Great.” Luka smiled. That girl always had solutions.

“I hope we still do fencing on Friday.” Adrien was checking his message for Nathalie.

“Okay, so what do I do once there?” Adrien sighed.

“Just dump her.” Kagami grinned.

“He can’t do that for the same reason he is taking her in the first place.” Luka reprimanded thoughtfully.

“How do we prevent her from crawling all over him once they get there?” Marinette muttered as if she was reading his mind.

“How does she handle bad breath?” Luka proposed as a solution.

“What should I take for that?” Adrien cringed. He obviously did not like the idea. But he could feel that Plagg had a proposal and the boy had an idea what it was and he was sure he did not like it.

“Sardines.” Nino made a face.

“Tuna sandwich?” Kagami frowned.

“I can bring some garlic bread for food there.” Marinette added.

“She is expecting a gala.” Nino stressed.

Kagami snorted.

“What is gala?” Hannah inquired.

Adrien frowned.

“Something that looks far more pleasant than it actually is.” The boy explained. “And it is not going to be what she imagined.” Adrien sighed.

“That’s good.” Kagami noted. “Maybe she gets disappointed and turns away to go home?”

“I never saw you as such an optimist, but it sounds like a plan.” Luka smiled.

“There are musical instruments in the community centre, is there a piano?” Marinette asked Hannah.

“A small piano, yes.” The girl confirmed.

“We could ask Adrien to perform.” Marinette beamed.

“Yes.” Hannah shrugged.

“Alya could engage her to brag about her charity work.” Marinette continued. “That could keep her busy.”

“Unless she goes quiet there, her lies could be busted.” Adrien warned.

“And you go home the same way you arrived, with Alya and Nino, unless she chooses to leave on her own.” Marinette frowned. It was not much of a plan.

“We are not leaving her alone with you.” Kagami smiled at Adrien.

“We are not leaving her alone with anybody.” Luka added.

“What is wrong?” Kagami asked Marinette quietly. She noticed how the pigtailed girl seemed not pleased with herself although the plan was slowly forming.

Marinette sighed. She glanced over everyone present.

“Do you remember that film premiere?” Marinette stumbled the words out without looking at anyone. “Well Chloe and me tried to ruin that for you. I’m sorry.” The girl was looking at her feet below the table. She felt so guilty and small. “That macaron, it was not for the director, but he ate it anyway and got an allergic reaction and got akumatized.” She continued to ramble while everyone else was silent. She never admitted this to anyone. “I just hope I don’t ruin everything.”

“That is not going to happen.” Luka was the first one to respond.

“Dude.” Nino adjusted his hat again and looked at Kagami and Adrien who were silent.

“You didn’t ruin anything.” Adrien beamed at his friend.

Marinette nodded. The truth was the thing with the gum only made Kagami and Adrien closer. She could not help herself but overthink, what if they went too far, what if she went too far, and Adrien resented her?

Kagami replayed the events of the evening in her head. She remembered then and smiled.

“It was the gum.” She stated as a matter of a fact.

“That was Chloe’s idea.” Adrien concluded. He just could not understand why would Marinette join forces with Chloe on that.

Luka knew, he understood and he wanted to change the subject, he felt Marinette was distressed.

“So it is a charity event. I will bring some stuff for donation.” Luka spoke quietly and smiled. “Some old instruments and books my mother decided to get rid of.” He clarified. “Don’t worry, that old keyboard is safe for you.” He looked at Adrien.

“I can bring a few books and games.” Kagami added.

“I can bring some electronic devices.” Nino added. “Games and gadgets.”

“Some games and clothes.” He had no idea how to get Nathalie’s approval for that, but he was going to try.

“I can bring something for painting.” Marinette smiled and looked at Hannah. “And cookies.” She added. Even if she was going to bake them all by herself, even if it took her all night.

The group had to split soon, there were classes to be at, but there was a plan that should help Adrien survive his date with Lila.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette has a few ideas but no elaborate plan (that would backfire anyway).


	45. Her date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila's schemes with a touch of other schemes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to be in a certain state of mind to write Lila and then again to edit that too ...

Her date

Lila was still in her element, now she was describing that gorgeous dress she was going to wear for the charity gala. Of course it was green to compliment her eyes and of course it was Gabriel because she was his muse. Nothing could feed her ego as the jealous looks from other girls who just wanted to take her place. She spent the lunch break in the canteen surrounded by most of the school girls there and fed on their jealousy. But she never missed how the girls from her class huddled together around a table in the corner and whispered together, each of them spared her a glance during her antics. But then, She knew Alya was there and it was probably related to her date. She was going to find out sooner or later. Therefore, Lila continued to gush about her forthcoming date with Adrien while Mireille. Aurore and the rest of the girls forced themselves to smile while all they wanted were to scream.

Alya was relieved to find Juleka, Rose, Mylenne and Alix at a table in the corner.

“I thought Marinette was going to get akumatized over this.” Rose spoke first what was on everyone’s mind.

“Yeah, me too.” Juleka muttered the confirmation.

“She took it really well.” Mylenne confirmed.

“Well, she went on that double date with Adrien, Kagami and Luka.” Alix reminded.

“She is not with Luka.” Juleka muttered and glanced towards Alya as if she expected a confirmation.

“I don’t know my girl any more.” Alya finally admitted.

“She left with Hannah.” Alix shrugged.

“I used to be her best friend.” Alya sighed. “She used to get us all involved in her love problems with Adrien.” She missed those old days. Now everything was different.

“Whatever makes her go through this.” Juleka muttered.

“As long as she is happy we should be happy for her.” Rose piped in.

“She would make one nasty akuma.” Alix shuddered.

“She always tried to help us in the bad times.” Mylenne smiled.

Lila strolled over to their table and decided to take a seat there.

“Alya, now that Adrien and me are dating, we should totally go on double dates with you and Nino.” Lila proposed slyly.

Alix frowned, that was always something that Alya talked about with Marinette in combination.

Juleka sighed and held Rose’s hand under the table. Both girls glanced towards each other before returning their attention to Alya. Mylenne went perfectly still in anticipation.

Alya needed a few moments to smile back. Those few breaths she needed first did not go unnoticed. She needed more time to give up on making Adrien and Marinette a couple. Ever since she heard the news about the date, she was torn.

“Come on, I know you girls invested so much in making Marinette and Adrien a couple, and how did she repay you? She replaced you with that new girl.” Lila fluttered her eyelashes and pretended to be sad, she even took Alya’s hand in hers. She tried to do the same with Alix on the other side, but the pink haired girl was too busy with her phone.

“Come on, I know Rose lost that unicorn to you.” Lila nudged Alix. “And it was by far not her first attempt.” She continued. Lila made each of them tell of one of the attempts, there were inside jokes between the girls and Lila wanted in. She never knew the details of the Operation Secret Garden, save the girls had flower nicknames and it failed, but she picked up on that.

“Perhaps Marinette turned to Hannah because you did not wand to do her dirty work for her?” Lila suggested. “Like when your phone got stolen.” she looked at Alya who suddenly straightened up.

Other four girls gasped.

Alya remembered it clearly as if it was yesterday. Marinette had stolen Adrien’s phone only to remove an embarrassing voicemail and then she returned it, secretly, without the boy knowing. Hannah was obviously even clumsier than Marinette, because she was caught, well not really caught, the phone was just found in the locker room. She never told Lila all the details, but Lila knew Marinette did that before.

“Who knows what she did with it. Have you noticed how Nino is avoiding Alya now? It must have been her doing.” Lila continued her speech.

There were worried glances, Juleka squeezed Rose’s hand tighter.

“And do you think she had chosen the place beside Ivan, your boyfriend, by accident?” Lila continued her speech while she turned towards Mylenne.

There was an air of discomfort around the table. The girls looked at each other. Nobody nodded, but nobody countered the claims either.

“As a class president, Marinette should have warned Hannah of her inappropriate behaviour.” Lila continued.

Alix flashed her eyes towards Lila. The same words were used for that incident in chemistry that involved Hannah. Everyone was too inclined to blame Chloe for making them all take the safety test again, but now she had a different suspect in mind for the anonymous complaint. Nobody else showed they made such a connection so Alix settled down calmly. Perhaps she was hearing what was not there, it reminded her of Marinette.

“Lila, can we get a selfie with you?” A girl student asked holding her phone.

“Because you are going on a date with Adrien.” Another student added.

Lila fluttered her eyelashes and hid her face as she pretended to be shy.

“Oh, thank you, I never expected that.” She continued to talk about her photo shoot with Adrien and being Gabriel’s muse. Tthat slightly distressed Juleka and Rose squeezed her hand in return, shy and tall girl wanted to be a model too.

Soon, Lila was the centre of attention again and surrounded by other students as she was bragging about her charity work and prince Ali and she was standing in the middle of the school yard.

“It is so much pleasure to finally go to a gala and not get a jet lag.” Lila exclaimed while everyone listened. And the girls around could not hide their despair when she went on and on about Adrien.

Chloe observed from the side, she remembered it rather clearly, it was Valentine’s day and she persuaded Adrien to sign a poster of her so she could brag to other girls and make them cry of jealousy. Now it was Lila who was doing that. And she was going on a date with Adrien. Like for real!

“He is only going on a date with you because he has to.” Chloe raised her nose and flung her pony tail while she passed the group.

That only fed Lila’s claims. The resident bully was attacking Lila and the crowd started to coo and console the poor daughter of a diplomat.

The group of conspirators disassembled strategically, as much as a group of teenagers is able to do that. Luka had left with Kagami. Marinette was re-examining her feelings about the whole thing, but Adrien was so grateful for all their help that she relented.

Nino and Adrien left the bakery at least five minutes before Marinette and Hannah were supposed to leave if they wanted to be in school on time. And they did.

“Hey Alya!” Adrien greeted the girl first on the school steps. She got out there only moments ago not even sure why she did that. Nino was awkward. He adjusted his hat a few times and glanced anywhere but at his girlfriend. He wanted to talk to her, he really did. Lila was nowhere to be seen and that finally encouraged the boy to smile at his girlfriend.

“Would you like to interview Lila and me on our way to the charity event tomorrow?” Adrien stated simply. “Nino could film you doing the interview.” He added.

Alya gaped at Adrien, then her eyes flicked between the two boys and then finally she threw herself at Nino and hugged him. The boy smiled sheepishly.

“Yes! Thank you!” She smiled widely and bounced on her feet, she shook Nino while she was doing that, but the boy did not mind.

“Um, and please, can you keep it as a surprise for Lila?” Adrien smiled his model smile.

“Of course.” Alya pretended to zip her mouth shut.

Marinette pretended to have something to pick up from her room only to be able to talk to Tikki alone.

“What is wrong Marinette?” Tikki inquired.

“I just don’t want him to go on a date with her.” Marinette clenched her fists.

“Marinette, we talked about this before.” Tikki warned.

“I know. I know.” Marinette sighed. “I am not going to use Longg to drown her nor to strike her with lightning.”

Tikki raised her eyebrows.

“Nor to blow her away.” The girl added.

Tikki nodded.

“What if I … “ Marinette started to speak.

“No.” Tikki cut her off.

“So there has to be a date.” Marinette concluded.

“Yes.” Tikki confirmed.

“And we were just making plans on how to ruin Adrien’s date.” The girl continued while she looked at her kwami.

“Yes.” Tikki confirmed.

“And you are not mad? Because when Adrien was on a date with Kagami and Chloe and me did that you … “ The girl trailed off

“This is different, Marinette, he asked for your help and you all promised not to leave him alone with her.” Tikki smiled.

“And that is okay.” Marinette confirmed. “And the spices on the flowers and all of the other stuff?”

“The spices might be a bit too much.” Tikki rolled her eyes. She did not entirely approve, but Lila was so bad and Adrien was so desperate that the tiny goddess of creation decided to let them have their fun, it was mostly harmless.

Meanwhile, Hannah was going over those forms. Everything seemed in order, all the fields needed were filled in, save the signatures, they needed at least one teacher and Ms Bustier, or two teacher and principal Damocles to sign this.

Her eyes flicked towards the trap door.

She could not help but feel guilty. Lila was ill. She could not help herself. And the six of them have just planned how to ruin her date. She had seen mad people before, she had known people who used to be normal, but then were driven mad by the circumstances. Perhaps this was too much? What if they all went too far and push the girl over the edge?

She knocked on the opened trap door while she was climbing into Marinette’s room.

“Time for school.” Hannah warned.

“Yes, I’m coming.” Marinette was descending the stars rather quickly.

The girls were walking down the street when Hannah finally collected her thoughts to speak.

“If we go too far, with Lila, on the date, we could … push her over the edge?” Hannah expressed her concern.

Marinette smirked. That actually sounded like a really swell idea. What if they finally provoked Lila to reveal her true nature? Her face started to shift into a grin as she imagined how Lila’s lies would be exposed for everyone to see. And then all her classmates, the whole school would see the liar she was. They were all going to be so disappointed. She could see their sorry faces. They would all look the same as that day when Lila got her expelled from school and almost everyone got akumatized, including herself. That would be a disaster, Lila akumatized, her whole class akumatized, her teachers, the school principal, … Suddenly she was worried and looked back at Hannah.

“You know? She could go nuts? Crazy?” Hannah waved her hand around her head as she was trying to explain what she meant. As Marinette’s face morphed into one of concern, Hannah concluded she was finally making sense.

“We need to help her.” Hannah reminded her classmate with a smile.

“We are going to help her.” Marinette assured her. “We will collect the signatures from the teachers and she is going to get help.”

Hannah nodded.

“You know, my mother has to learn some psychiatry for her exam.” Hannah spoke quietly, she took one look around. “We could read those books ourselves and help her.” That was the way she solved her problems, she learned how it was supposed to be done and then she did it herself.

“That is a bit beyond ...” Marinette actually stopped. Well she was supposed to stop before she crossed the street, but that was not the reason this time. There were many things she did on a daily basis that were beyond what a normal teenager should do, fighting akuma for example.

“You know, if this fails, we can do it your way.” Marinette grinned. “But she doesn’t like us, she would not talk to us.” The girl warned.

Hannah began to notice holes in her plan.

“She would never let the two of us analyse her or help her.” Marinette warned.

Hannah nodded, she understood, that girl needed help and was not ready to accept it, at least not from those who wanted to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My train of thoughts becomes a train wreck much too often.


	46. The Green Worm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah gets into trouble on her own, sort of, with a little help from Lila.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: contains language oddities, might be difficult to read. And these are French language oddities written in English by an author that is neither English nor French native speaker.  
> Uses literal translation of French phrases (and then the true meaning in the brackets).

The green worm

“Today we are going to have some fun.” The French teacher announced.

Nathaniel was sitting at his usual place, Lila made a show of apologizing, but not really making the whole thing her fault.

“I’m so sorry Nathaniel, I could not stop myself, I couldn’t bear to look at those drawings, you must be very talented if you managed to make even me look bad” Lila sing-song her speech. “You know, I would really need an advice on how to make myself look mean, for the ad campaign with Gabriel, as I am his muse now. I just wish I knew how to be mean like that.” She might have been genuinely sorry for ripping the drawings because now she had no evidence to claim that it was her who was bullied by being depicted like that.

It was a real challenge to stay silent during her speech. Nathaniel managed, he memorized her pose and expression, he was going to draw her again, just not when she was able to catch him doing it. Adrien was a picture of self control, as always (or most of the time) and Nino was as cool as always (having headphones and some music by hand is always helpful). Marinette and Hannah got into the class seconds before the bell and missed the whole show.

So the boy was back in his usual seat, but leaned away from his bench mate, as far away from Lila as possible. The girl pretended not to notice, she used her left hand to hide her face as much as possible from the boy, she knew he would be drawing her again.

“We are going to learn about typical phrases of the French language and how they came to be.” The teacher briefly explained what the phrases were and mentioned a few examples. “Besides the usual phrases in our everyday speech, we also have those tongue breaking phrases that we use to exercise the correct pronunciation. I am sure you are already using phrases in your everyday speech. Now, please, each of you write down a few phrases on a sheet of paper. Don’t forget to put your initials on it. For each phrase, write a sentence in your notebook that uses it.” The teacher instructed. “You will exchange the phrases with your classmate and you will have to repeat the task with the phrases you get from your classmate.”

Hannah had her improvised book of phrases, she collected those few as she searched the internet or people used them with her and she needed to understand. She was able to handle this task on her own and she was proud of it. The teacher did not frown at her when she consulted her little notebook, she did not even look in her direction.

Marinette stared at t he mop of blonde hair in front of her. She needed phrases, and the first few that occurred to her were in fact inspired by a blonde boy with blonde hair and green eyes, but dressed as a black cat, a boy that visited her balcony from time to time, a boy that was her superhero partner. That mischievous cat surely had ideas how to destroy someone’s date, but she could not ask him.

Adrien absent-mindedly wrote down a few short phrases. His thoughts returned to the date he was expected to have on the next day. He was tempted to find an excuse and not go. His father would probably send a cheque and an excuse, but he wanted to spend an afternoon with his friends and it was a perfect opportunity, now the date with Lila ruined everything, except his friends had a solution and he even dared to look forward to it. It wouldn’t be too different from a normal day in school, he hoped.

Then the teacher arranged the exchange so that Hannah was expected to read what Lila wrote, while Lila got her paper from Nathaniel.

Marinette shyly passed her sheet of paper to Adrien while she took the paper from Hannah. Well, first she noticed how Adrien calmly slid his sheet of paper to Nino and then the boy turned around and smiled gently. Gentle smile, warm green eyes.

‘Marinette, you are expected to give him a sheet of paper, not to blush and stare at the boy, okay?’ Well the thoughts might have been her own but it was the fact that Tikki patted her thigh through the purse that finally urged Marinette to make a move. And then someone patted her back, it was Hannah who was passing her her own sheet of paper. Marinette took the paper from Hannah, but stared at her own reluctantly.

If she knew it was Adrien who was going to use them, then she would have chosen the expressions more carefully. Those were just stupid things, the first ones that occurred to her. But they were written on the paper already, she had no chance of retracting it now. The boy was looking at her expectantly, finally she relented and passed her paper to him.

“Excellent, now each of you is going to take one sheet of paper and write sentences that use the phrases your classmate had written.” The teacher instructed the next task.

The teacher asked Kim to read his examples first.

“ _Press on the mushroom to be there in time_.” Kim smiled at Mylenne, he got her phrases, they were easy to use. (in French it is “ _appuyer sur le champignon_ ” and the real meaning would be _press the pedal_ ). Hannah snickered, it always sounded funny to her how French had mushrooms in their vehicles. Other students followed suit, it was indeed fun to hear.

Hannah stared at her paper. Of course she thought how she was able to handle this well once she wrote down her three phrases and used them in sentences of her own. But now it was her turn to form sentences from phrases someone else provided.

There were three lines. She prayed that the teacher never called her to speak. At least not till the end of this class. She needed help with these. She could hardly pronounce them, let alone understand their hidden meaning or use them in a sentence. Actually, once she read them one by one, they seemed like complete sentences, maybe she should just read them out loud.

Maybe Lila provided her with complete sentences instead of just phrases? It could have been by error or it could have been a peace offering from a girl who threatened her recently. (Lila wrote the phrases, but she might have assumed they were going to be used by Nathaniel, not Hannah, she did not know in advance, but she was equally happy to put either of them into trouble).

Adrien smirked at his sheet of paper, it reminded him of that time when Marinette told Chat that she loved him. Perhaps the girl still had feelings for the superhero if these three phrases were the first thing that got to her mind. He just could not resist, there was only one way to use those phrases, and he was not the one to back away, oh no, he was going to have fun. It was his turn to speak.

“She had a cat in her throat.” ( _She had a sore throat_ ) Adrien smirked towards Marinette while he was speaking. The girl blushed and maybe even squeaked, then she covered her blushing face with her hands and peeked between her fingers. “And other cats to whip.” ( _she had other things to do_ ) He added and winked. “so she gave her tongue to the cat.” ( _She gave up_ ).

Marinette blushed severely. She was thankful that, as far as she knew, nobody in her class knew about the Weredad incident. And there was no way that Chat Noir ever learned that she, Ladybug, ever used those phrases, in her life, let alone in a French class, out of her own choice.

Adrien sat down and felt really smug. The boy felt how Plagg snickered in his shirt. Fortunately, the class was not so quiet so nobody could hear his kwami.

After Nino and Alya, the next one to speak was Marinette. Fortunately she had a few moments to catch her breath, the fact that Adrien turned towards Nino in a way that the boy could glance towards her, smirk and wink once more did not help her calm down and collect herself. But fortunately, she only had to read what she wrote minutes before.

“I was kneading through” ( _in trouble_ ) “because someone was breaking sugar on my back” ( _someone gossiped about her_ ) “And almost fell in the apples.” ( _fainted_ ). Marinette made a point of not looking at anyone for the first two lines because the inspirations sat exactly two rows behind her back, while the green eyed boy in front of her kept looking her in such a way that she was indeed very close to falling into apples. And yes, Alya and Alix definitely snickered at her last words, the blush on her face and the blonde boy who turned around completely to look at her while she was talking. Old habits die hard.

The teacher made a point of leaving Hannah as the last one. This was the first time she ever heard most of these phrases and she never knew what all those cats meant nor why Chloe brushed off Marinette with ‘go and boil an egg’ sometimes (leave me alone). She stared at her piece of paper. She did not even understand the meaning of many of those words let alone how to use those phrases in her sentences. She could not discern the meaning.

The teacher explained how they were going to write a homework that would use at least ten different phrases while she was making notes on how satisfied she was with the performance the students did that day.

Finally, Lila was finished with a sly grin on her face and then reminded the teacher that Hannah got skipped.

Hannah got on her feet.

She took a deep breath.

She held the piece of paper with both hands and close to her chest so her head was bowed and the hair from her messy pony tail partially hid her face.

“Si mon … tonton ... tond … ton … tonton, … ton … tonton … sera tondu.” ( _If my uncle shaves your uncle, your uncle will be shaven_.) Hannah stuttered out one word at the time. The teacher raised her eyes in alarm as soon as the girl started to speak. Snicker at the girl and Alix shot daggers at the boy with her eyes.

The whole class stirred. It was not what they expected to hear. Kim at least bothered to hide his

“We were not supposed to use such phrases in this task, Lila .” Marinette whispered her warning .

“ These are tongue breakers.” Alya hissed.

Lila looked smug for a second until she noticed several pairs of eyes on her, as at least Marinette then she played it cool, as if she did not know what she was doing, as if she misunderstood the task, as if it was not her who wrote those sentences in the first place.

Hannah took one more breath and continued without ever trying to perceive what was going on around her. And around her was a quiet chaos. She did not dare to raise her eyes, especially to look at the teacher.

“ Je suis … ce que .. je suis, et si .. je suis … ce que .. je suis, … qu’est-ce que … je suis?” ( _I am what I am, and if I am what I am, what am I?_ ) She read the paper with desperate look in her eyes. That was in fact the last line, she skipped the one in the middle. She felt her eyes become moist. With blurry eyes and one more breath she continued to read.

Marinette looked at the teacher expectantly, she wanted this torture stopped, then she turned around and glared at Lila who could not hide her sly smile even as she covered her face. Adrien was torn. His friend was suffering public humiliation.

Lila was ecstatic, her little scheme had worked far better than she expected. She even formed a list of excuses already. And the fact that Hannah could not even read those, those were child’s games, she was told, oh how much she welcomed the fact that the hyper clever math girl in front of her got humiliated in front of the whole class.

“ le vert … ver … allant vers … le verre … en verre … vert” ( _A green worm is going towards a green glass_ ) Hannah collapsed onto her seat. More than a few students could not help themselves but snicker at the sentences, but she ignored her surroundings .

The bell rang.

“That was not the assignment she was supposed to do.” Marinette protested. “Lila gave Hannah phrases that she could not use in a sentence.” She continued. “Those were the tongue breakers.”

“ Yes, indeed, they were.” The teacher had already noted something in her tablet and then raised her eyes towards Marinette, she smiled and made a small nod to acknowledge she noted those remarks.

The class was finished anyway and the students rushed out because they had gym for their next class. Lila was already in her element bragging about her linguistic capabilities and how she never expected that such mundane task could be too much for anyone her age. Oh, she was a foreigner, alright, a perfect excuse.

“Oh, I misunderstood the assignment, you see, when I had my French lessons … “ And then she pronounced those phrases perfectly, the way she was trained by her French tutor to prepare her for attending a French school. She always had excellent pronunciation, they told her, she practised with the radio and TV stars. She was well trained indeed, her mother saw to that, at least. Or maybe it was the standard service for embassy personnel and their family members. Of course she was telling her tall tales how even the French president trained there with her for his speeches.

Adrien got on his feet and glared at Lila while she was leaving the classroom , then he took a few steps towards the other girl.

“You were excellent.” He praised Hannah quietly.

Hannah shook her head.

“ The teacher knows it wasn’t your fault.” Marinette whispered.

“Come on, now we know what to practise at our next session.” Adrien told Hannah and then smirked while he glanced towards Marinette. She blushed. Again. As if she ever stopped. Why did she use those cat phrases, and why was it making the boy so happy?

Hannah was walking slowly towards the locker room. Adrien and Marinette kept her company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, so, the inspiration came from the time when I was working in France, the working language was either English or French and the French used their French phrases in English on me ...  
> I actually boiled an egg.  
> (You can expect that Hannah is going to get help for her homework).
> 
> The French expression, the translation and the literal meaning is in the brackets:
> 
> appuyer sur le champignon to drive very fast; to accelerate;to floor it; to put the pedal to the metal ("to press on the mushroom")  
> tomber dans les pommes to faint / pass out ("to fall in the apples")  
> donner sa langue au chat to give up ("to give one's tongue to the cat")  
> avoir d’autres chats à fouetter to have other fish to fry ("to have other cats to whip")  
> Avoir un chat dans la gorge To have a sore throat (To have a cat in the throat)  
> étre dans le pétrin to be in a mess / a jam; in serious trouble ("to be in the kneading-trough")  
> casser du sucre sur le dos de quelqu'un to gossip about someone behind their back ("to break some sugar on someone's back")


	47. Learn the Ropes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They continue to have fun in the gym class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, this was the second half of the previous chapter (originally the whole day was planned to be just one chapter yeah). But I got carried away ... still sticking to the plot ;)

_ Learn the ropes _

Hannah stood in the locker room, in front of her open locker and stared at her gym clothes.

Better yet, she was staring at the bag that was supposed to contain her gym clothes.

It didn’t.

The contents were one boy’s t-shirt and green shorts, both belonged to her brothers, it was their clothes. She somehow got their clothes mixed up with her own gym clothes last night. Or they did. Because it was definitely her gym bag. It must have been her who mixed it up then. She took a deep breath and put on the shirt and the shorts. They fit her because they were slightly big for her brothers. Those came from a package Adrien brought last week.

The shirt was really nice, she never had such a nice shirt, it was a shame to wear it to the gym. Then she tried to remember if her brothers had a gym class that day and if one of them had her clothes with them. Well, the names of her brothers were not written all over her clothes, with a little luck, nobody would notice.

“Hey, Adrien used to wear a shirt just like this one, years ago, when it was still in fashion.” Chloe could not help but notice out loud. But then she suddenly stopped talking, she remembered that shirt was no really on sale, it was a specimen that was later slightly modified for the sale. Only Adrien owned shirts with that particular feature in the logo.

Marinette groaned and glared at Chloe to stop pestering their classmate about fashion, but the intervention was obviously not needed any more.

Everyone turned around to see who was that person in a green shirt.

Lila smirked, someone else was also annoyed with the girl. Now she only needed to push Chloe a little further. What if she suggested to Chloe to check up the data on Hannah, what if she suggested that their new classmate was an illegal immigrant, the heiress would certainly make sure that the girl disappeared from their class. The plan was flawless.

They walked towards the gym when Adrien jogged to catch up with Hannah and Marinette.

“Hey Hannah, I did not expect the shirt to fit you so well when I brought it.” The boy noted as he glanced over the girl.

Hannah started to feel self conscious.

Lila glared from behind, she overheard what Adrien told Hannah. She carefully approached Chloe and explained her little scheme. Chloe scoffed and promised to do absolutely nothing, but Lila knew better, she knew what the heiress was going to do, she could rely on it.

Adrien, Marinette and Hannah were completely unaware of what was going behind them, on the far end of the line of students. The boy placed himself between the two girls, one arm on a shoulder of each of them.

Marinette was too busy blushing to notice anything else.

Hannah stuttered out her explanation about the clothes mix up.

Marinette stuttered out some kind of a reply.

Adrien thought how no wonder the two girls were getting along so well, they were so similar after all. But then he remembered the three cat themed phrases that Marinette passed him and assumed his smug expression. He was going to have more fan in the gym class.

The students were lined up in the gym.

“Today we are learning how to climb the rope.” The teacher announced. Next to him, two thick ropes were hanging from the ceiling to the floor. The ceiling looked very high, much higher than it normally did, when the students were not expected to climb all the way up to there.

Adrien grinned.

“Someone has a climbing wall in their room. Not fair.” Nino pretended to whine while he nudged his best bro in the side with his elbow.

“Not a climbing rope though.” Adrien replied with a smirk.

Marinette looked at the rope and gulped. She had no issues about climbing that rope, but her shorts were … well … short, and not exactly tight around her thighs. Let’s just say there was some space around her thighs to see … maybe her underwear? Suddenly she envied all the other girls who were wearing tights. Why Marinette did not take the tights today?

Chloe checked her nails.

“I am not breaking these for this stupid class. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.” She protested.

Alix snickered.

Max adjusted his glasses as he looked up. The ceiling looked really high.

Most of the girls whined with more or less protests.

Kim made a pose not unlike a gorilla monkey and then started to punch his chests with his fists.

“Warming up first and then collect the mattresses to put underneath the ropes for safety.” The teacher announced.

They were running in circles. The exercise did good for Hannah. She started to forget about the French and concentrated on the movement and her breathing. Then they assembled the mattresses under the ropes.

Finally, it was time to climb the rope. The teacher showed to the students what they were expected to do.

“You do not have to climb all the way up if you are afraid of the heights.” He stressed. “A few metres would be sufficient.”

That statement released the tension and everyone started to chat relaxedly.

But Hannah missed the instructions. The events of the last French class kept rolling around in her head. What did the teacher write in her note? She knew she was bad. It was a disaster. She needed to check her grade.

Finally it was time for the students to try.

Kim and Alix were the first one to climb. And they did it. Alix was fast, but Kim was much taller and his strong arms puled him up swiftly. They both reached the ceiling almost simultaneously. At least it was not possible to tell from the bottom who was faster.

“Okay, now, please get down.” The teacher called.

The two ropes were barely a metre apart and Kim accidentally swung just so much to nudge Alix to the side. She protested and both of them released the ropes before they reached the floor.

“Max, you’re timing us the next time.” Alix said while her words never left Kim’s.

“You’re on.” Kim was never the one to back out from a challenge.

Adrien was the next to climb the rope. Somehow all the girls took a step back and Marinette was the one left in the front. Chloe was still concerned about her nails. Lila was thinking of an excuse to avoid it.

Marinette shyly approached the rope after the teacher urged her to do it.

“I’m sure you can do this great.” The boy smiled encouragingly. He remembered the time when Marinette was Multimouse. Rope was her tool. It was much thinner rope than this one, but it was a rope. The boy was certain she could do that.

Marinette blushed in place of her reply.

‘Okay, you can do this, just don’t look at him, don’t look at him.’ She was trying to encourage herself, or at least to ignore the distraction that had blonde hair and green eyes, the boy that was expected to climb the rope beside her.

The teacher ordered them to start, so they did. And it went well. Marinette concentrated on the rope and her limbs and she was climbing. She was not as fast as Alix, at least she thought so. She repeated the moves and made herself to not look anywhere else but at the rope, nor up, not down, and especially not to the side where that green eyed blonde model could be.

The teacher below stopped watching them and turned to the students while he explained the technique.

Lila took a few steps towards the rope that Marinette was climbing. Nobody was watching her, the students were looking at Adrien and Marinette or the teacher, she grabbed the rope.

Soon Marinette’s hand reached up and grabbed the metal device that held the rope attached to the ceiling.

“Hey, we can pat the ceiling together.” The voice beside her told her.

She made the error of looking towards the source of the voice. Adrien was smiling, his green eyes aimed directly at her.

Lila smiled smugly and shook the rope.

Marinette squeaked when she saw Adrien. It really sounded like a mouse. Especially to Adrien who was one metre away. Her legs gave out and she was hanging from the rope holding it with just one hand.

“Hold on.” The voices from below were shouting. Everyone looked up.

Marinette concentrated and grabbed the rope with her feet.

Lila grabbed the rope and shook it with more strength, she sent one pulse up the rope.

Marinette lost her grip onto the rope with her feet.

Lila sneered and shook the rope again. Everyone was looking up, nobody noticed her.

Marinette was holding to the rope with just one hand and tried to grab it with the other. But someone grabbed her and pulled her away from the rope.

She was hanging off Adrien’s arm while he held to the rope with both arms and legs. She was in his arms, her body flushed along him.

He grinned. It was the same grin he directed at Ladybug whenever they rolled away with their limbs tangled during an akuma attack and he would end up on top of her (or vice versa). There was something familiar in that grin to Marinette, but honestly, with or without the kwami magic that helped them hide their identities, her brain was not able to process any information, let alone to make the connection with her superhero partner.

“Hold on.” He told her quietly and calmly.

She flailed her hands aimlessly. She grabbed his arm and released, in panic, once she realized what she grabbed was definitely not the rope. Then she tried again and again, Adrien’s shirt, she wrapped her legs around his thigh and held onto other body parts she preferred not to even try and detect what they were.

“Calm down.” The blonde boy laughed. He had the audacity to snicker at her failed attempts. Then she flailed her hands in a panicked attempt to grab onto anything that was not a body part.

“It is okay, you can hold on to me if you want.” He smiled gently.

There were whistles from below.

“Don’t try to go back to your rope, you can both descend on his.” The teacher ordered.

Finally Marinette held onto the rope. She had to sneak her hand between Adrien’s chest and the rope to do it so she grabbed the rope just above Adrien’s head (and had to stretch that hand to do it).

They were both breathing heavily.

“Wrap your legs around him not to fall down.” The teacher ordered.

Marinette closed her eyes and did as told to. Yep, there were more whistles from below and Kim was howling.

Finally her weight was off from Adrien’s arms, although not off the boy completely.

They were both breathing heavily.

The teacher instructed them how to proceed and soon Adrien was descending the rope just below Marinette. She tried not to think about her wide shorts, okay, she really did. And she really hoped Adrien was looking down, because they were supposed to look where they were going.

Well Adrien was more concerned about his classmate falling down so he looked up. The fact that her legs and her thighs were right there had absolutely nothing to do with that. Oh no. He was just making sure that his classmate descended safely down that rope. So he had to stay close, you know, to make sure she descended safely. And if he intentionally slowed down or lingered on some spot, it was just for her safety.

Right?

Marinette was descending really slowly.

Adrien snickered to himself, he clutched onto the rope with his hands and feet and rose up just when Marinette was descending.

She felt something tickle her thighs.

She stopped.

She felt the tickling again.

She looked.

It was a mop of blonde hair.

She squealed and lost grip on the rope.

Soon she was sitting on top of Adrien’s arms while his hands held the rope firmly.

“I got you.” Adrien laughed and then asked if she was okay.

“Hey, you two, stay decent!” Kim yelled from below.

The teacher instructed the next student to climb the free rope. It was Rose and she had difficulties to even hang onto it. But once she got to hang on it, the technique of moving up was easy to do.

Marinette was not sure how she continued her descend. Adrien jumped onto the floor and his arms grabbed Marinette and lowered her to the floor (absolutely needlessly) once he could reach her. Because the girl did not jump, because the girl did not even look down to see how far the floor was, because she knew those green eyes were there to meet her if she did.

The teacher let Hannah and Juleka climb the ropes while he decided to investigate what just happened. The girl was blushing severely and was not able to give any coherent answers. Her mumbling and jumbling up words was just not something that could give the teacher proper description of the events. The teacher assigned that to physical exhaustion and turned to the boy.

“I startled her.” Adrien was quick to take the blame.

“And then you grabbed her off from her rope before she had the chance to reattach.” The teacher warned loudly.

Adrien smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry.” He was not sorry at all and the teacher should see that.

“Teenagers.” The man muttered and observed Juleka and Hannah who have already reached the top.

Unbeknownst to the two teenagers and their teacher, the group of students was looking at their next point of entertainment.

Juleka had ling arms and legs, once she got her grip on the rope, she climbed up slowly and elegantly. Hannah on the other hand was a different story.

“Look, a green worm.” Kim shouted. He was not mean, the girl really looked like a green worm, he impersonated a monkey just before he climbed up the rope himself, the boy did not intend that to be humiliating.

Hannah struggled. The rope was thick, she was stressed, but she gave it all she had and she reached the ceiling. Then the hard part came. She had to get down too. It was easy to slide the rope between one’s feet, but she never got a hang of it on a rope this thick, so instead of sliding down, she repeated the same moves as when she was going up. And she knew she looked like a tiny green worm. But she never bothered to care about how she looked while in the gym.

Down on the floor, a pair of olive green eyes was shooting glares, first at Adrien and Marinette and later at Hannah. She never stopped to sip malicious comments to Chloe about both girls while she hid it behind her saccharine smile and her falsely sweet tone.

Chloe put up the whole show about her nails, but then she finally realized she could do it even without damaging her precious ornaments. She ascended and descended rather quickly and landed down with elegance.

Lila on the other hand refused to climb once her idea that Adrien should help her up because of her arthritis was refused by the teacher.

Then everyone had to repeat the exercise. The second and the third climb were far less eventfully for Marinette than the first one, although Adrien made a point of waiting for her to descend the rope.

This time Lila was surrounded by the girls and she did not attempt to do anything, at least physical.

“Oh, Adrien had to save her, you know. I told him to do so. I asked him to go up the rope with her. You know, I had to, really. You know how clumsy Marinette is. Imagine how severely she would have been injured if she fell down. I would have saved her myself, but my arthritis just got worse and I couldn’t possibly … ” Lila was telling her tall tale. “I’m so flattered, he is putting up with that awful girl for me. If she got injured that I would be too distressed for us to go on a date and … “

Nino rolled his eyes and tried to pull Alya away, he wanted to talk to his girlfriend and put some sense into her, or at least to explain to her that Adrien does not like Lila. He clearly remembered how many times Alya tried to push Marinette and Adrien together, sometimes literally, and he was scared that she might do the same with Lila. Although his best bro never complained about Marinette being pushed towards him, he knew that the boy would definitely not feel the same way about Lila.

After the class finished, Marinette was back with the two forms to ask the gym teacher if he was willing to sign them. The man signed the medical one without a second thought. But he observed the other one carefully. Then he looked back at the first one, scribbled a note and signed the other one with a muttered comment that the second one must be true if the first one is not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is Chat ... Imagine Tikki and Plagg watching from some far end corner and bickering about the whole thing.


	48. Baguette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some baking is done in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After checking for errors, no energy for a meaningful summary.

Baguette

Hannah picked up her brothers and went home. She had a plan. She was going to the bakery to make cookies for the next day. She was really looking forward to that.

“We have some good news, daughter.” Her mother spoke. “We are both going to be at the community centre tomorrow.”

“But that means we are going to our shifts now so you will have to take care of your brothers.” Her father added.

Hannah slumped. She had plans. She was going to visit her friend and bake cookies, without her brothers. She was really looking forward to that.

Marinette helped out in the bakery.

“Papa, I’d like to make some cookies for the charity event at the community centre tomorrow.” The girl told her father.

“How many have you promised?” Tom asked cautiously.

“Oh, not much, as much as I bring will be fine.” She smiled. Well she had plans that included many cookies and macarons, croissants and pain au chocolates.

“That is good. Remember the last time you promised to feed the whole school?” Tom reminded her.

“Yeah” Marinette slumped her shoulders. “But this time I will have some help. Hannah should be here. And Kagami and Luka.”

Tom smiled and patted the girl’s head.

As if to confirm his statement, Luka brought Kagami when he arrived to pick up his next set of deliveries. Luka left, but Kagami stayed.

Marinette instructed Kagami how to make cookie dough while she packed the boxes and carried freshly baked pastries from the bakery kitchen to the shop. She misplaced a few cookies and mixed up a few orders while Kagami memorized the instructions but …

“Where is butter?” Kagami pondered unable to find anything. “And sugar, and the eggs and the flour?”

With a wink and a nudge from Tom, she was directed to a fridge in the corner where she managed to detect what was butter and where were the eggs.

Then Tom winked and elbowed a vessel with sugar towards the most recent bakery apprentice and then pointed her towards the flour.

Sabine checked the boxes and switched the misplaced cookies while she shook her head at her daughter’s absent-mindedness.

Kagami looked ad the bowl, the butter and sugar were inside, she was expected to mix them.

Finally Tom jumped in to the save and pointed her towards the machine.

“I prefer to do it by hand, but you might prefer some help.” He nudged the girl towards the device.

Kagami smirked.

“I’d like to try by hand.” She smiled determinedly.

Tom shrugged and let her mix it herself. The girl attacked the batter and the sugar with all ferocity of a fencer facing a monster. Tom raised his eyebrows and observed as the girl added other ingredients.

“If I was that cookie dough I would have surrendered by now.” The man muttered to himself as he arranged the next round of croissants on a tray and Marinette filled it into the oven.

Hannah watched her brothers in despair. They were home alone and writing their homework. Eddie was chewing on his pencil and studied the crack in the wall for at least the last ten minutes (since they began with their homework). Robbie was kicking the leg of their kitchen table and the leg of the chair he was sitting at while he was doodling monsters on a page of his notebook. Hannah shifted her eyes from one boy to another and then back and contemplated what excuse to use to leave the two of them alone, at least for a little while. She did not ask if she could bring them with her, she assumed bringing them would be too much to ask.

“Can we go to the park?” All three of them spoke in unison.

The next minute they were running down the stairs.

Adrien was greeted by Nathalie. He was going to get more clothes fitted for his next photo shoot. Several damaged items that got replaced already. He dreaded it. That meant that his photo shoot with Lila could resume any day now. He put the clothes on and waited for the tailor to pin the needles in all the right places.

“Mlle Rossi is not here for the fitting?” Nathalie inquired from Gabriel who observed the fitting from his tablet.

“Her fitting got slightly postponed.” Gabriel smirked.

Nathalie changed the expression on her face as if she understood what internal joke it was exactly.

Adrien missed the exchange, he was relieved that it could have been worse, Lila could have been there.

Meanwhile, Lila waited for Alya and Nino to arrive to the park. She knew Alya had a date with Nino, she was going to deliver her end of the bargain and she was going on that fitting this evening and she was going to have that photo shoot in this park as soon as the sun comes out on Saturday. And Marinette can watch her from her bakery and be jealous.

Straight on the cue, Alya and Nino walked into the park with their three younger siblings. Chris was already in a bad mood because he was separated from his favourite gaming console.

Alya and Nino sat on a bench. The twins noticed Lila who waved them and Chris soon strode over. Lila encouraged the kids to do mess around the park, they were punished by Alya to go and sit still and with further push from Lila who sneaked over to the kids with only one piece of candy, the kids were fighting. Lila hid and rubbed her hands. Ella, Etta and Chris were a menace to anyone in the park, screaming and shouting. Lila hid a way. Soon, a violet butterfly entered an object all three of them were pulling.

Adrien was sent to his room to practise Chinese until his tutor arrived and after that he was expected to practise piano. But when he entered the room, his Chinese tutor was already there. He was in the middle of the Chinese session when he noticed rather many small kids dressed the same way ascended the building outside.

“Oh, it is an akuma attack.” Adrien muttered while he looked around the room for a way to escape. “I suddenly don’t feel so good, I’d rather spend the rest of the akuma attack in my bathroom. You are free to go whenever you want.”

Marinette heard screams from the park and then the street in front of the bakery was flooded with Sapotis. But this time they were different, they actually had wings. And they were not looking for a fair, not even the carousel from the nearby park. They wanted treats and playing games.

Marinette locked the bakery door quickly while the swarm of Sapotis was trying to break in.

Then the girl mumbled an excuse and ran up to her room. She transformed quickly and was on a rooftop just in time to evaluate the damage.

Hiding behind a wall and a chimney, Ladybug could clearly see Hannah, her and her brothers had actually climbed up a tree in the park. They stood out from the sea of Sapotis in the park. Then she noticed Alya and Nino who were standing on a bench and trying to calm down the creatures while they bickered between them on whose fault it was. But Ladybug saw who was hiding behind a tree, it was Lila, and in her mind there was no doubt on whose fault it was.

Ladybug needed help.

She jumped back into her room and opened the miracle box.

Her hand hovered above the Turtle bracelet and the Fox pendant. She knew where the temporary wielders were. But she entirely forgot to check the surroundings for a trap. She could not see much from her hiding spot anyway. Then she took the Dragon choker and the Snake bracelet. They would have to do. Kagami was in the bakery downstairs and she was sure to find Luka.

Ladybug knew she had to hide before she gave away at least one miraculous. So she simply descended the stairs and waved Kagami in the kitchen to join her. Kagami transformed on the stairs and ran up as instructed.

Then Ladybug heard Luka who was banging on the side door to be let in. She quickly unlocked and gave him the bracelet.

Ladybug and Viperion met Ryuko at the landing by the window just before the entrance to the family home.

“They swarmed the streets.” Viperion warned.

Ladybug nodded and all three of them got out from the window.

The three heroes were hiding and observed the scene carefully. The akumatized object must have been different, this time each of the Sapotis had something in their hands that they would shoot from and create more Sapotis.

“The akumatized object must be the weapon, but we have to find the three originals among all the copies.” Ladybug instructed.

Ryuko and Viperion glanced at each other.

“How does she know there are three originals?” Ryuko whispered.

Viperion shrugged.

“We had Sapotis before.” Ladybug answered without turning around.

Her eyes were on her superhero partner who vaulted from rooftop to rooftop with a huge grin on his face, his hair fluttered in the wind and shone in the sun and the boy even bothered to wave at few onlookers.

Then Ladybug saw her.

Mayura stepped out from behind a chimney and threw her fan at the superhero. She could even see Hawk Moth who motioned after Mayura as if he wanted her to stay hidden and not go for an attack.

Chat did not see her, but he definitely heard a voice on his left.

“No, we need to wait for her to bring them the jewels.” Hawk Moth whisper shouted to Mayura.

Chat deflected the fan with his baton, but the baton was damaged, he could not retract it and whe he tried to force it, it cracked in two.

“Hawk Moth and Mayura are going after Chat, let’s go!” Ladybug was already flying to her partner.

“Second Chance.” Viperion called and turned his bracelet.

With both Mayura and Hawk Moth on him, Chat used both broken pieces of his staff one in each hand to defend himself. With a villain on each side closing in on him, the boy was dangerously close to being captured.

Hawk Moth snarled.

“At last.” Mayura whispered.

“Ladybug, Ladybug!” Alya called from the place where she was hiding with Nino. She was filming but she put her phone to the side. She obviously expected to be given the fox miraculous. Nino was standing by her side and just smiled.

But Ladybug barely spared them a glance and continued towards her superhero partner.

The moment Alya called for Ladybug, Hawk Moth turned away, and that was sufficient for Chat to evade his blow. Both villains were stunned to see that Ladybug did not go after Alya and Nino to give them their miraculous, she was going straight after them. Chat took the moment to go after the pin on Hawk Moth. The villain was just turning back to his initial foe and was ready to strike again with his stick. He was going straight for Chat’s belly.

The moment was sufficient for Ladybug to wrap Chat in her yoyo and yank him towards her.

“Hey, I could have gotten his pin.” Chat protested once Ladybug had him in her arms and was pulling both of them to a safe place.

“Or get pinned on his stick.” She retorted.

Chat deflected the fan that Mayura threw after them with the remains of his staff.

“My weapon is damaged.” He noted. He could see Nino and Alya in the park below, and then he noticed the figure behind a tree. Slight nausea in his stomach identified the person.

“We have help.” Ladybug replied as both of them landed behind a chimney where Viperion and Ryuko were waiting.

Ladybug called her lucky charm.

“Yeast?” All four superheroes pronounced at the same time.

“I guess we are in the kneading trough.” Chat winked.

Ladybug gave him a look. She remembered the French class from that afternoon. She shook her head. This was not the time.

“Fetch as many bags of flour from the bakery as you can and meet me in front of the bakery door.

All four superheroes had a bag of flour on each hand and made a huge pile right in the street in front of the bakery. Tom and Sabine watched from the bakery window.

“Chat, Viperion, keep the Sapotis away.” Ladybug ordered.

The two superheroes deflected the swarm of Sapotis from their sides.

Ladybug emptied the contents of the yeast bag into the flour.

“Ryuko, we need to add water and then enough force to mix this and bake it.” Ladybug looked at the hero remaining at her side.

Ryuko called for water dragon first, she was making dough. Ryuko was probably the most surprised hero of them all that she actually succeeded. Then she called for a wind swirl that raised the huge pile of dough and mixed it and spread it.

“Sapotis, we have some bakery treats coming up.” Ladybug called.

All the Sapotis from the park and the surrounding streets swarm around the heroes.

“Jump up for safety.” Viperion warned and all four heroes were on window ledges while the dough was growing. Ryuko moulded it into a really long baguette.

“Lightning.” Ladybug shouted.

Ryuko directed her bolt at the dough and it became baked.

Then it fell down and each Sapotis wanted a piece.

“Chat.” Ladybug smiled, but her partner was already on it.

Cataclysm destroyed not only the bread but also all the magic gloves that Sapotis were wearing. The copies disappeared in puffs of smoke. Soon, there were only three confused kids left in the street while Ladybug released a purified butterfly. Then she called for the miraculous cure and everything was back as it was before.

Since the akuma was destroyed, Hawk Moth and Mayura retreated to their lair.

“I never knew you could bake.” Viperion smiled at Ryuko.

“I just got a crash course I guess.” Ryuko shrugged.

The four heroes bumped their fists.

“Hey, are they okay in the bakery?” Chat asked as he looked at Sabine and Tom who were waving through the window.

Chat was the first one to walk over there, Tom got out with a tray of pastries.

“A snack for our favourite heroes.” Tom grinned.

Each hero took a piece and thanked him.

“Hey little ones, take some cookies.” Sabine offered a tray to Ella, Etta and Chris.

“Chat, could you get the kids back to their carers and warn them about who is lurking behind that tree while I collect the miraculous?” Ladybug asked with a smile.

Chat Noir sent the kids back to their older siblings and motioned to Nino and Alya in the direction of Lila before he turned around to leave.

Ladybug collected the bracelet from Luka in a back alley and straight after that the choker from Kagami on the stairs that lead to her flat before she got out from the window just in time to detransform in her room.

Marinette descended the stairs back into the bakery and started her story as soon as she entered the kitchen and saw her father.

“I was hiding in my room the whole time, what did I miss?” She offered her excuse with a huge smile.

“Oh, nothing much, just baking some baguettes.” Tom grinned and stood to the side.

Kagami was mixing the cookie dough behind him. Luka was taking boxes for his next delivery. And right there, in her bakery kitchen was Chat Noir with a pain au chocolate in his hand and a huge relieved grin on his face, because now he saw and knew that Marinette was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And more baking to come in the next chapter.


	49. Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five kids are making cookies.   
> Sleep deprived Marinette has ideas.  
> Chat has ideas too.  
> Language ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That language games got the better of me when I was writing this part. I'm bad at puns (even worse than Chat) so ... enjoy.

Rephrase this (Cookies)

Marinette’s eyes went wide. What was Chat Noir doing in her bakery? She expected Luka and Kagami, but not him.

“Well, hello my partner.” Chat greeted Marinette.

Marinette froze in place. Did he guess her identity? Did she reveal herself? How? When? Did everybody else know?

“Your partner?” She frowned.

“Yeah, you were amazing Marinette.” He grinned.

That grin, he definitely knew her identity.

“What did you do? I thought you were in your room just now?” Tom inquired.

Marinette started to connect the tips of her index fingers as she was trying to invent some kind of plausible explanation. At least her father did not know he identity and she needed a little white lie to tell him.

“Oh no, it was not this akuma fight.” Chat Noir shook his head.

Marinette carefully exhaled and concentrated on her breathing. So this was perhaps not about her identity then. But the smirk he gave her was making her uneasy.

“I’d say your daughter really know how to stand up to an akuma, especially when us superheroes are not around.” Chat continued.

‘Not us superheroes’, so he was not insinuating she was Ladybug? Was Chat Noir going to give away the fact that she was Multimouse? Because it was only him who knew.

“What happened.” Sabine appeared from the shop with a worried face.

“That boy from her class got akumatized into Evilustrator again and she just talked to him and practically took out the akuma on her own.” Chat grinned.

“Oh.” Marinette totally forgot that she was not transformed during most of that fight. Of course that was the reason that Chat was there in the bakery that day. Things started to make sense.

“Oh, you forgot that you fought an akuma?” Tom inquired over a tray of croissants.

“Um, no, he was just making drawings that came to life, there was no real danger.” She smiled.

Chat raised an eyebrow. Those were pictures of Lila that materialized around her, fortunately motionless, because Evilustrator did not order them to move before he was suddenly defeated. It was obvious nobody was buying her excuse.

Hannah burst into the bakery with her brothers in tow.

“Sorry I’m late. I can stay and help.” She pronounced out of breath.

“We can play football in the park.” One of the boys offered while the other eyed some pastries.

Sabine let the boys have a piece of pastry each and Tom sent them away with a ball.

Chat stuffed his face with his pastry in the meantime.

The two boys left and there was a moment of silence.

“Well, we are closing up in half an hour, you can start on your cookies for tomorrow.” Sabine smiled.

“You are making cookies?” Chat pretended to be surprised.

“Yes, for a charity event tomorrow.” Marinette confirmed.

Chats ring beeped. Marinette hoped that was finally his cue to leave.

“Can I help?” The cat like hero offered.

“Aren’t you … ?” Marinette trailed off and pointed towards his ring.

“Um, can I use your bathroom?” The boy replied sheepishly.

Tom directed Chat on where to go.

Marinette was not sure what she was getting herself into.

She had no time to contemplate on that because she was really busy. Each of the teens had a mixing bowl before them and was making dough for a different kind of cookies. The first batch of cookies that Kagami mixed was already in the oven.

Hannah was making some kind of cookies that were traditional from her country. After some negotiating with Tom, she got a huge amount of crushed nuts in exchange for a recipe. The man even stood by her side and observed carefully as the girl mixed the nuts, flour, eggs and a little butter as well as few more spices and the baking powder. Sabine reminded him to write everything down.

“I trust you to clean up afterwards.” Sabine greeted the teens before her and Tom retreated upstairs.

Hannah was shaping the cookies and arranged them on the baking tray before Tom finally left after the man was promised to get samples for tasting. The cookies contained pepper. That was what won Tom over. He absolutely needed to try.

Kagami was just starting the battle against her next round of cookie dough. Luka observed her in awe. It really looked like a battle. The boy himself was expected to mix his own kind of cookie dough, but was too busy watching Kagami.

Chat Noir … was mostly making trouble. As soon as Tom and Sabine left, and Marinette warned him not to eat raw dough, he abandoned the dough and started to snoop around the kitchen. He opened all cupboards, peeked into each jar, smelled each spice (and sneezed after some), poked his nose into everyone else’s business before he stood in front of the oven and tapped his foot impatiently.

“Are we making macarons?” He finally popped the question.

“I … um. We could?” Marinette shrugged. “Macarons are a lot of work.”

“Would you teach us how to make macarons?” Kagami asked and smiled.

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Luka added.

“Unless it is a family secret?” Chat leaned into Marinette’s space so much that she actually pushed his face away.

“Okay, after we bake this round.” Marinette relented.

Chat and Marinette were shaping cookies and putting them on the baking tray in silence.

That lasted for about thirty seconds.

“So, how was your day?” Chat asked as if that was something he asked Marinette each day.

“Well, I had school.” Marinette played along.

“And what did you do in school?” Kagami asked from her spot. Marinette felt betrayed, she wanted to tell Kagami about the events from school, but not about the phrases in front of Chat.

“History, geography, chemistry, French, gym.” Marinette shrugged. She tried to play it cool.

“Was any of those subjects … fun?” Chat asked as if he already knew.

Marinette made a face.

Hannah grumbled.

“So bad?” Luka inquired as he sensed the mood between the two girls.

“French, not exactly fun I would say.” Marinette rolled her eyes.

Hannah looked very worried.

“What happened in French?” Kagami asked without hesitation.

“We were learning phrases.” Marinette explained.

Hannah hunched her shoulders, but she never stopped shaping the cookies, it looked like a really delicate procedure, she was doing everything by hand.

“I don’t know French phrases.” Hannah huffed.

“That’s understandable.” Luka acknowledged.

“Yeah, but she did not get the usual phrases, she got tongue breakers.” Marinette protested.

Hannah shrugged.

“What tongue breakers?” Kagami asked.

Chat grinned.

“Oh no.” Marinette muttered.

The next twenty minutes were spent by Chat making each of the teens repeat all tongue breaking sentences ever known to French (and a few Marinette was sure Chat simply invented on the spot). Hannah participated to the best of her abilities, but it was hard for her, it was really hard. Chat waited patiently for her to train and train until she did each of them correctly at least once. Kagami was frustrated when she discovered that she too struggled with few of them. Luka laughed it off, he was at least as good as Chat when it came to pronouncing them, perhaps it was his calm nature and his love for melody.

“So it was Lila who gave Hannah those tough lines?” Chat concluded.

“Yeah, she _farts higher than her ass_ (she is big headed), I just wish I could _nail her beak_ (shut her up) and _yell at her until she is a rotten fish_ (give her some verbal lashing).” Marinette rambled while Chat observed her with pride.

The last tray with cookies was in the ovens and there was no more postponing the inevitable.

“Macarons! Macarons!” Chat started to cheer and the rest of the group joined in.

“Okay, macarons.” Marinette exhaled.

They were mixing up their first batch when Chat switched the conversation back to French.

“So, do you have any homework that this humble cat could help you with?” Chat asked while his pose was anything but humble.

“Just more phrases.” Marinette sighed.

“Do you have any favourites?” Chat grinned towards Marinette.

The girl blushed. The same way she did when Adrien was using her phrases in the class that day. It did nothing to dissuade Chat from pursuing this further. He looked at the girl expectantly. Marinette was having an internal battle. She remembered exactly which phrases she used in the class and for the life of her she could not remember any other. Was this cat able to read her mind? Did he know? Because the way he looked at her he must have known. But that was not possible, wasn’t it?

Luka and Kagami observed the exchange with interest.

“I… “ Hannah spoke unaware of the tension in the room. “I don’t know what most of them mean.” She finally admitted.

“Oh that’s okay. I can help you with that.” Chat grinned.

Marinette released a long breath, she had no idea she was holding it, saved by Hannah from potential humiliation, she finally started to think. Hannah looked as if she was not feeling any self confidence. She was lost it the moment when she realized how much of the language she still had to learn.

“ _Kneading trough_.” (being in trouble) Marinette spoke. “You knew what that one meant, right?”

“Yeah, I get in trouble often.” Hannah admitted how she learned the meaning.

Marinette continued to remind Hannah of the other two phrases that the girl actually knew. But then Chat smirked at her again.

“Not now, I have to show you how to arrange the macarons.” Marinette raised her hand.

She did a few then the others tried as well.

“You are really _like a fish in the water here_.” Chat praised all three girls, but only Marinette reacted, first with a blush, then she raised her eyes in alarm, and then she narrowed her eyes at the teasing.

Luka chose to quietly explain the phrase to the other two girls because Chat was involved in a staring contest.

“I mean, making macarons is _another pair of arms_ than making cookies.” ( _a whole different story_ ) Chat continued as he leaned into her space.

“It is as easy as _putting my finger on your nose_.” ( _very easy_ ) Marinette pushed him away by putting her index finger on his nose.

Luka was explaining to Hannah and Kagami. Both listened carefully.

They were making small circles on their trays that should become the top and the bottom of a macaron. Let’s just say that others managed to make circular shapes after a few tries but none of Chat’s attempts was even remotely circular.

“If you do this step wrong the result will be useless.” She warned and pointed towards Chat’s pear shaped macarons..

“You mean I _pissed in a violin_?” (did everything wrong) Chat grinned.

Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Aren’t you making _a whole cheese about it_?” (aren’t you fussing too much) Chat smiled. He was there to have fun, he really did not take the task seriously as the rest of the group.

“You _had long teeth_ here.” (you were ambitious) Marinette motioned to the other trays that were filled with mostly circular shapes.

“Can’t you _deal with your own onions_?” (mind your own business) Chat retorted.

“I guess _the carrots are cooked_ ” (What is done is done) Marinette shrugged and helped to load the trays into the ovens.

“Oh, _have the cockroach_.” (I’m sorry to hear that, you can be sad about it) Chat replied sympathetically.

Marinette cleared her throat. That being was not to be mentioned in a bakery, not even in a phrase, okay?

“You _have a cat in your throat_?” (do you have a sore throat) Chat winked.

“I’m _getting swollen by this_.” (this is annoying me) Marinette held her ground.

“And you’re _farting sideways_.” (you’re grumpy) He teased.

“ _Go boil yourself an egg_.” (cut it out) She stomped her foot.

“Are you grumpy because you didn’t _do the fatty morning_?” (sleep in) He winked.

“ _Stop your chariots_!” (stop bluffing or teasing me) She looked at him under her bangs, did he know how often she almost slept in for the school? Did he know her that well? Nope, don’t think about that!

“Are you _becoming a goat_?” (am I driving you mad) Chat teased.

“I _give my tongue to the cat_.” (I give up this game). She finally relented and used a cat phrase.

“You _have a head up your ass_?” (You are tired?) Chat grinned, he finally heard what he wanted.

Marinette blushed, she remembered how close her own behind behind was to someone else’s head that afternoon in the gym, so close that his blonde hair tickled her. But Chat only snickered at her, as if he knew what she was thinking, she had to reply, she just had to. So she ignored her blush and took a deep breath.

“I _have other cats to whip_.” (I have more important things to do) The girl quickly turned around to hide her blush as she went to retrieve the first tray of macarons from the oven.

“Ouch.” Chat whined and posed dramatically with the back of his hand on his forehead as if he was a damsel in distress.

“Oh don’t _fall in the apples_ for me here.” (don’t faint) Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Could we _go back to our sheep_?” (back to the initial point of conversation) Chat asked.

“I think we never left.” The girl shook her head and retrieved one more tray from the oven.

Hannah wanted to write all that down.

Luka was laughing so much he stopped his explanations for Kagami and Hannah. Kagami was laughing along with Luka although she did not understand what some of the phrases meant.

“What was that?” Kagami inquired.

Marinette was suddenly more aware of the audience she had as well as the fact that she was not Ladybug at the time, she blushed a bit confused about how far her and Chat went with their conversation.

“And that was our lesson in French phrases.” Chat bowed exaggeratedly.

Rather awkwardly, Marinette smiled too, as if that was part of her plan the whole time.

Kagami and Hannah applauded.

Marinette taught the others how to assemble macarons together while Hannah was finally taking notes on the different phrases and their meaning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you had fun reading this as much as I had writing it.  
> Had to do that before going to all the angst.


	50. A Sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya, Nino and Lila after the akuma attack.  
> Adrien after he got home.  
> Hannah gets a sleepover (her brothers too).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, this IS going to be finished, wow ...

Sleepover

Coming back to the moment right after the akumas were beaten and Chris, Ella and Etta returned to their older siblings, Nino was looking betrayed.

“I told you I did not want Lila here.” He took off his red cap and flipped it up and down nervously.

Alya opened her mouth to invent an excuse. She simply told Lila that she was meeting Nino in the park, it wasn’t as if she invited her to join, she wanted some time with her boyfriend, not Lila, she just did not exactly mind that Lila was there and what that had to do with anything.

“I’m really sorry Nino.” Lila sniffled as she was walking over. “I was just crossing the park when those akuma minions swarmed it.”

Alya knew that was not entirely true, she saw Lila on the other side of the tree where she talked to Chris, Ella and Etta.

“She told us you will get us pastries from Marinette’s bakery if we did that, and you only punished us.” Chris shouted.

Nino gaped.

Alya rolled her eyes, she was not believing one word of it.

“And why would Lila do that?” Alya crossed her arms.

“I never said that.” Lila started to sing song a story, but she got interrupted by gasps and screams from the three kids.

“Okay, that’s it.” Nino cut the conversation short. “This is too much, even for you.” He never specified which ‘you’ he meant. “Come over Chris. We are going home.” He returned a nervous smile to Alya.

“Are we still up for tomorrow?” Alya inquired.

“Yeah.” The answer was thick with meaning. Nino was going to do it. For his best bro. “See you at school.”

“You have a date tomorrow as well?” Lila teased.

The twins still looked displeased. Lila had a sly smile on her face. Her job was already done. But there was a chance to do it again. Alya sent the girls to the carousel to make them feel better and then turned to Lila.

“Yes, we have, sort of a date.” Alya began her story.

“Oh, but I can’t babysit them tomorrow, I have a date with Adrien Agreste, we are going to the charity gala.” Lila was practically shouting, quite a few people around them turned their heads.

Alya rolled her eyes at her friends excitement. It never occurred to her that Lila was a bit too excited about a charity gala after all her stories about prince Ali, Achu, charity events and flying away to save some children.

“That is okay, I already asked Nora and she gave me a few hours.” Alya smiled. She explained to Nora all about the interview, but she was determined to keep it a secret from Lila just as Adrien asked her to.

“Oh, I just got a message from Gabriel Agreste.” Lila exclaimed while she was looking at her phone. “I’m going to a fitting right now.”

The girl left without waiting for a reply from Alya.

Alya shrugged and took out her phone. She called Nino.

“Hey Nino, I really didn’t know she was going to be in the park.” Alya greeted. If she omitted that she did see her before the akuma attack it was not even a lie, or a little white lie, maybe.

“Okay babe.” Nino took in a deep breath. Chris was teasing him about his girlfriend and whined about wanting to go home to play video games.

“And I did not spill about our plans for tomorrow.” She added.

“Great.” Nino grinned. He was going to do his part of the deal for Adrien. They continued to talk about the equipment, real time streaming or filming it and editing later and similar stuff.

Lila was displeased that she was on the fitting alone. Adrien apparently did it already. A woman pinned her jacket to be shorter and was working on the skirt.

“This is unacceptable, this pattern can not be at this place on someone her height.” Gabriel snarled from the tablet that Nathalie carried around Lila. “You can’t just make it shorter, it has to be redone.”

“We are still waiting for the second batch of materials to go through the customs.” Nathalie replied.

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Okay. Next.” He ordered.

“I think it would look much better if Adrien was here and got fitted with me.” Lila dared to suggest in her false sweet tone.

“Adrien already did his fitting, as I told you.” Nathalie replied flatly. “And he is having his Chinese tutor now.” She was checking the boy’s schedule.

“Perhaps after his Chinese then.” Lila was not backing off.

“He is expected to practise his piano after that.” Nathalie added.

Lila could barely hide her scowl at that, she was promised Adrien for company in return for her odd favours. Nathalie did not dare to interrupt Adrien’s schedule just to please Lila. Especially since Gabriel did not require that.

“How many of you are staying for dinner?” Tom asked when he entered the bakery kitchen.

“Oh, I have to go!” Chat stared at the clock with his eyes wide. He completely forgot about the time. His piano practise was about to be finished soon enough. With a little luck, nobody checked on him. He grinned, took two more pear shaped macarons that he made and vaulted away with a two finger salute and a macaron in that hand while the other macaron was sticking out from his mouth.

“I’m allowed out until dinner.” Kagami shrugged and smiled.

“I should go too.” Luka added. “Need a ride?” He offered Kagami.

The two of them left in a hurry.

“Are you alone with your brothers this evening?” Marinette asked quietly but Tom heard it anyway.

“Yes, my parents are both on a shift.” Hannah nodded.

“All three of you are staying for dinner then.” Tom exclaimed. “Go on and pick them up, Marinette can pack the cookies and clean up.”

…

Chat Noir made sure he returned to the Agreste Mansion through the window leading to his bathroom.

“I didn’t know you liked baking so much.” Plagg teased. “Now that you’re fed with all that disgusting sweet stuff, why were you not making some Camembert cookies or muffins?”

Adrien gagged but threw a cheese triangle towards his kwami anyway.

Plagg swallowed it in one bite.

Adrien shook his head and got out from the bathroom carefully.

His room was empty. There was a note from his Chinese tutor that he left after the akuma attack was finished. He was expected to have a piano practise so he sat down at his piano and started to play.

A minute later Nathalie entered his room.

“Yes Nathalie?” Adrien inquired.

“So you are finally practising the piano?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, isn’t it on the schedule?” He asked and played dumb.

“It is.” She confirmed. “Your Chinese tutor left almost an hour ago.”

Adrien nodded to acknowledge the information.

Nathalie looked expressionless. She did check on him, but the boy was apparently locked up in the bathroom. She knew better than to explore why was a teenage boy in a bathroom. She simply left a reminder about the piano practise and left. She was too busy with Lila to check on the boy more than once.

“Lila was here for the fitting.” Nathalie continued as she decided not to question the boy about his bathroom experiences.

Adrien plastered an artificial smile on his face.

“She left already.” She stressed.

The grin on Adrien’s face was slightly more real and borderline relieved.

“The garments are not yet ready for the photo shoot.” Nathalie concluded. “They can’t be adjusted to her height and the tailors can’t even start to make the new ones. Your father is really not pleased.”

The last words sounded like a warning. His face finally fell.

“Now about that charity event tomorrow.” She was back on the last point of her business.

Adrien listened about his schedule and slowly released a sigh of relief when he heard he still had fencing in his schedule the next day. He was happy with anything that took his mind from the date he was having the next day.

Therefore, the boy was not even mildly annoyed by Chloe calling him after dinner.

“Hi Chloe, what’s up?” The boy asked cheerfully.

“Adriekins!” Chloe screeched, but then she quickly schooled herself. “I am a bit concerned about your connections with that Hannah girl.” She began.

“Chloe please … “ Adrien replied, but Chloe did not let him continue.

“No! Listen! Lila told me that she is in the school and even in the country illegally.” Chloe began to speak.

Adrien sighed. This was not what he hooped for, although he was not sure what he was hoping for exactly.

“She abused the resources meant for refugees and the charities that provided for her and she played the system to get into our school.” Chloe continued.

“Look, Hannah has no citizenship, but her family is okay and as a minor she should not be expelled from France … “ Adrien started speaking.

“So you know!” Chloe cut in.

“Yes, I do know. But Hannah did not abuse anybody, she really needs all the help she can get and she is not asking for much, she has nothing, Chloe, nothing!” Adrien could not hide how agitated he was. “And Lila hates Hannah, she threatened the girl already.”

“Yes, because you gave Hannah the time of your day.” Chloe warned. “Lila is after Hannah for the same reason she is after Marinette and Kagami.”

“What do you mean?”Adrien frowned.

“Adriekins … “ Chloe rolled her eyes and huffed. “Lila is a jealous bitch, she is going after any girl you care for.”

“Did she threaten you too?” He inquired.

“Puhlease!” Chloe retorted. “As if I can be threatened.” But the brief pause and the tone told Adrien everything he needed to know. He knew Chloe practically their whole lives.

“What did she do?” The boy inquired.

Chloe huffed again.

“Chloe?” The boy called.

“Nothing. She did nothing to me. She was Ladybugs best friend, just like me, and she was betrayed, just like me and … “ She spoke but Adrien was not having that.

“She is a liar Lila.” He cut her off. And then he explained it all, from the beginning. “I know you are not such a big fan of Ladybug as you were before, but please do not take Lila’s side on this. Please?”

“I … will think about it. No promises.” Chloe replied and cut the call.

Adrien looked at the phone and then at his kwami.

“So, what’s new Casanova?” Plagg inquired.

“Don’t call me that.” The boy whined.

“What? You mean you’re not one?” The tiny black cat floated in the air just out of the boy’s reach. “I would say it differently after your performance in the bakery.”

“Plagg, just … go boil an egg (leave me alone) I have homework to do.” Adrien pretended to be busy until he found that he actually had a homework to write.

…

Three kids were going back to their home through the park. It was already getting dark and Tom followed them home. Him and Sabine insisted that the kids could stay and have a sleep over, but Hannah explained they still had homework. So they reached an agreement. They were going to pick up their books and notebooks and come over. After they finished homework, they could play games until bedtime.

Tom and Sabine helped the boys with their homework. It wasn’t much to deal with and with a promise of gaming afterwards, boys were more than eager to do it quickly (and perhaps sloppily and skip a part or three).

Hannah and Marinette were in her room. Their homework was done but both of them preferred to stay awake and just talk.

“You have many pictures of Adrien.” Hannah noticed as she glanced around the room.

“Oh, these are all my designs.” She pointed to the pictures with the hat as well as from the photo shoot when Juleka got akumatized again.

“Really?” Hannah smiled. “Adrien is wearing the stuff you made?”

“This was just a photo shoot, but he is wearing a few things I’ve made, although he doesn’t know it.” And then Marinette started to talk about the scarf and the beret and they ended up opening her chest and she took out a few gifts she made for Adrien but did not deliver yet.

“Back home, I learned how to knit and do crochet and sew and stuff.” Hannah smiled. “I made a few plush toys and pieces of clothing that nobody wore but me, but I was never this good.”

“Would you like to do that again?” Marinette offered.

Within minutes both girls were knitting and laughing at themselves because Hannah called them two old grannies.

“Do you talk to Chat Noir often?” Hannah inquired.

Marinette stiffened. She talked to him as Ladybug each day, as much as they talked during an akuma fight. But as Marinette, not that often.

“Not that often, but we did fight Nathaniel when he got akumatized today.” Marinette replied.

Hannah hummed to acknowledge she understood.

Marinette quickly switched the subject back to knitting. The girls were reminded to go to bed and finally put down the knitting needles.

“I think you are doing just fine.” Marinette smiled as she examined what Hannah did. The girl smiled at the praise. They changed and went to Marinette’s bed because that allowed them to talk more easily. Marinette left behind only for so long to sneak a few cookies to Tikki and pat the little goddess of creation in her hidden nest on the shelf.

Hannah noticed that photo of Adrien above the bed, the one with the heart, the one with no design on it, just his smiling face. There were other photos on the wall, but this one was standing out.

“I wish I didn’t love him so much.” Marinette admitted. “I wanted to take it off. I wanted to tell him how much I love him. But he loves Kagami and sees me as only a friend. So I should take it off. But I can’t. Because I still love him too much.”

Hannah only nodded to acknowledge.

“Do you design because he is a model?” Hannah asked.

“No, I used to design long before I ever met him.” Marinette countered. “And I did not even like him before we met. I did not like him when we first met either.” She laughed and told the story of how she fell in love.

Hannah listened with a small smile. It was a nice story, but it caused her friend so much suffering.

“Did you ever like a boy?” Marinette dared to ask. She remembered how Hannah claimed she was never going to fall in love.

“I had boys as friends..” Hannah confirmed. It was logical. With two brothers and no room of her own, they shared all their friends.

“Did you like one of them more then the others?” Marinette inquired carefully.

Hannah looked really sad.

“I did. He died.” She stated simply. That boy was her friend and she never felt more than friendship for him, but she liked playing with him a lot.

Marinette froze in place. That was definitely not something she expected to hear from someone so young.

“Tell me about things you did for Adrien.” Hannah asked quietly after a long silence. She did not want to remember, she needed a distraction, she needed to know how one made a fool of herself just because of love.

And Marinette did so they could both laugh about it. It was really late at night when both girls fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lila is getting her prize.


	51. Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are late for school and Lila has a new plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The things start to go downhill.

Late

It was a different tune of the alarm clock that made Marinette sit up in her bed.

Someone beside her groaned and someone else’s hand was looking for the offending sound and switched it off. That huge pile of hair belonged to Hannah.

Marinette took in a breath and steeled herself to get up.

Then she plopped right back and decided that ten more minutes was just fine. Her alarm did not even go off yet.

Marinette heard a familiar alarm. Someone beside her sat up, but she could switch off the offending noise with her eyes closed.

Tikki was going to wake her up to be just in time.

Someone else hit the bed and remained motionless.

Her thoughts drifted back to sleep.

Then she was woken again. Tikki patted her forehead but remained silent.

Marinette finally remembered.

Hannah was over. They were supposed to get up early and get her brothers ready for school.

They rushed down the ladder from her loft bed (read it as they both fell, but landed on their feet and hands), dressed up, brushed teeth, tied up their hair and got to the kitchen.

Marinette had no time to think about how jumbled Hannah’s hair looked in the morning, it was a miracle she managed to collect it into the messy pony tail. Mylenne was right. Braids were much easier to manage.

There was no time for proper breakfast.

With pure strength, the girls separated the two boys from the gaming controllers (really, did they even sleep on the couch or they played games all night) and dragged them out through the bakery.

A greeting, a smile, a hug and a croissant each and they were on their way.

The boys insisted they knew the way to school.

The girls were probably going to be late anyway but if they ran to school instantly, they at least had a chance.

They were late for the usual morning attendance call.

Ms Bustier listened patiently to their half baked excuses.

“We stayed up all night with homework” Marinette tried a little white lie.

“We overslept.” Hannah finally admitted, rubbed her eyes and yawned.

The teacher was ready to let it slide.

“You were just talking about examples.” Lila noted in a sly tone.

Ms Bustier made an awkward face.

“I don’t think this is a good example of an example that we were talking about.” Adrien countered.

The teacher smiled weakly.

“As a class president, Marinette is definitely an example to us all.” Lila continued.

“It was you who called her our everyday Ladybug.” Alya reminded Adrien.

Marinette felt cold shivers down her spine. She had no idea what was going on in the classroom before she arrived, probably Ms Bustier trying to encourage everyone to be nice and set an example for the rest of the world.

Hannah was ready for anything, after the French yesterday, she did not expect a marvellous day, with or without a party in the evening.

“Please let Hannah go, she has obligation to pick up her brothers from their school.” Marinette begged the teacher.

“Oh, if all of us can blame our extracurricular activities for our absence, then Adrien and me can go to a photo shoot straight away.” Lila countered.

Marinette fisted her hands.

Hannah sighed.

“Very well, I’m really sorry Marinette and Hannah, you are both going to stay after classes and help out in the library.” Ms Bustier sighed and noted the sentence on her tablet.

Hannah perked up. The punishment was to spend an hour in a library after classes? That did not sound too bad. She could do that. Suddenly being late was not the worst thing in the world.

“What about their homework?” Lila continued.

“Oh yes, Hannah, Marinette, please hand me your homework sheets.” The teacher smiled gently.

The two girls rummaged through their backpacks and, to Lila’s irritation, produced piles of worksheets that represented their homework and gave it to the teacher.

“Looks like you are the only one who can’t do her homework due to extracurriculars.” Kim snickered at Lila.

Because the school day started with a drama of Lila’s homework being stolen and then everyone had to hand over their homework to Ms Buster. Several students were rather irritated by all the stealing, fist the phone and then the homework, but Lila quickly blamed Hannah and Marinette. Lila was rather irritated that the girls were late, but she had a plan.

“Oh, I am really sorry, but doing all the charity work and fighting the climate change really pushed my schedule to the limit, and on top of that, to be the muse of Gabriel Agreste and go on a date with Adrien ...” Lila was practically singing.

Marinette was red in the face.

“Are you going to be okay?” Adrien asked the girl quietly.

Marinette needed one look into his green eyes to change her expression completely, until she was pink in the cheeks for a completely different reason.

“We all have to deliver our homework first thing in the morning now because someone stole Lila’s homework.” Alya whispered to Marinette.

Hannah leaned forward with her eyes open wide. Then she looked at Ivan who confirmed with one firm nod. Hannah looked back at the teachers desk and her own and Marinette’s homework. She felt cold sweat go down her spine. What was going to happen today?

Ms Bustier collected the sheets with the homework and asked everyone to deliver their phones before she proceeded to teach. She started with collecting phones and now she was collecting homework because there was a thief in the classroom, and Lila suggested it all started this school year and there was a new student in the class.

Hannah did not have much time to worry. Paying attention and writing notes took all of her time.

Marinette worried her lower lip and wondered what was going to happen today because Lila obviously had another scheme to play.

Adrien glanced at Chloe from time to time, but the girl was unreadable. He could only hope that Hannah was someone not sufficiently important to have Chloe get her hands dirty. Their phone conversation last night did not sit well with the boy.

The first class was over and during the short break Marinette ran with Hannah to the locker room to retrieve their English books. They returned to the class running and panting only to find Lila surrounded by admirers, Chloe busy on her phone while Adrien and Nino were listening to some music. The two girls stood at the bottom of the classroom, as far away from Lila as possible and just in front of Nino and Adrien.

“What about your brothers, Hannah?” Marinette inquired.

“I will message my papa.” The girl replied with a shrug.

“Are you going to be in trouble?” Marinette worried her lower lip as she observed her classmate.

“I’m in _the kneading trough_ (in trouble) the whole time.” Hannah shrugged.

Adrien laughed. It was that free laughter, the same that made Marinette fall in love with him. She knew then that Adrien was in fact listening to the two of them.

“Hey girls, you did your French homework well?” Adrien inquired. He knew they had to with the lesson he provided and with the knowledge Marinette demonstrated in the bakery last night.

“Homework we did, slept together last night.” Marinette jumbled her answer. Then she flailed her hands. “Um no. I slept with Hannah for homework.” Then she stopped moving. “Argh.” She groaned and walked to her seat.

Hannah was not sure what was wrong. She could not go to her seat because Lila was surrounded by other students who listened to her next tale.

“Did you have a sleepover?” Nino inquired.

“Yes! That! We had a sleepover and wrote our homework together. Yes. Thank you Nino!” Marinette whisper shouted.

“Oh you had a sleepover at Marinette’s.” Nino told Hannah dreamily. The sights of all the treats flooded his mind and his stomach growled.

“So cool, I’d like to do that once.” Adrien added.

“Me too.” Marinette blurted out before she covered her mouth with both her hands, her cheeks pink and her brain in an overdrive. Any chance for her to recover from that was swiped away by the English teacher who walked into the class with the bell and everyone was to sit on their spot and pay attention to the class.

When Hannah finally did reach her seat, she discovered that she forgot to sign the worksheet she got from Ms Bustier and signed it, then she pushed it into her backpack.

The English teacher decided today was a good day to play them an audio of a conversation.

Marinette actually fell asleep leaned onto her hand. What woke her up was a bang behind her. That bang was a head of another girl who fell asleep in the class and hit the desk (literally fell asleep as Adrien chuckled to himself although he was worried for both girls).

After the audio tape, the teacher expect the students to answer a lot of questions on the worksheet that showed just how well they understood what they heard.

Marinette stared at the question ‘What is Desiree hair colour? a) black b) brown c) blonde’. The girl frowned. Who was Desiree? She looked at the mop of blonde hair in front of her and sighed dreamily. Desiree sounded so much like desire to Marinette. She almost slapped her self for the thought. Then she circled c) and moved on. She had no idea, but giving no answer was worse than giving a wrong one. She proceeded to circle the answers and was rather surprised that she found a few that she actually remembered.

Hannah stared at the questions. About half of them she could answer easily, but she had no clue about the rest. Yeah, someone mentioned Desiree had blonde hair, right? Or was it that it was not blonde? She remembered clearly before dozing off that there was blonde and that name in the same sentence. Well, she circled that. Then she used her logic for the rest and had a filled sheet. She did not expect much, but having slept only for a few hours was taking its toll. It was time to deliver the worksheet and she grabbed the papers on her desk, signed on top and delivered them forward.

After they turned in their worksheets, the teacher explained the homework assignment and then decided it was the perfect time to engage the class in reading a piece of text. That meant no dozing off for the two tired teens. At least each of them was warned when to read the next sentence by their seat mates.

The lunch bell was greeted with a collective cheer, and the teacher greeted the teens as they practically ran out from the classroom.

Adrien was expected home urgently. He was even glad that his phone was in the basket with all other phones, not to be called away by Nathalie durign classes, but the message that his driver was waiting was there. Nino waved his friend away and collected his stuff.

“Hey babe, what do you thing about a lunch on a bench, just the two of us?” He adjusted his cap nervously.

“Ok, good, we can go through those questions … “ the girl glanced around. “ … that I prepared for Lila.” She whispered.

Nino shrugged, as long ans the mentioned girl was not there, he was going to be fine.

This lunch break, Marinette pulled Hannah along, they were going to catch up on their sleep, at leas half an hour, and nobody was going to stop them. That was the plan.

But Ms Bustier was waiting in the courtyard with Lila on her side.

“Lila, as I explained, your grades are down and you are frequently asking for extensions on your homework and other assignments.” Ms Bustier warned gently.

“As I explained, my homework must have been stolen, Ms Bustier. And I suspect that another student is giving my homework as her own.” Lila continued.

Marinette sighed. She did not sign up for this. She hoped to pass by unnoticed.

“Actually, I filled my worksheets and they were gone the moment I was expected to return them and I have a pretty good idea where they are.” Lila continued. “Not so fast.” She stepped in the way of Hannah and Marinette.

Marinette sighed.

Hannah looked at the teacher expectantly.

“I’m sure Hannah took it.” The girl smiled slyly. She knew girls were working on some forms, she overheard Nino and Alya last night in the park. So she stuck her worksheets in Hannah’s and Marinette’s backpack while both of them ran into the locker room for their books. She also looked for those forms.

Hannah opened her backpack and flipped it to the teacher.

Without any hesitation, as if she knew exactly where to dig, Lila sneaked her hand inside and produced a worksheet that Ms Bustier gave them that morning. It was an empty worksheet. The girl who did everything in advance had no time to fill it out yet.

“But there is Hannah’s name on it.” Ms Bustier pointed.

“She put it over my name, you see? There is a name erased.” She pointed to a smudge in the corner. It could have been Lila Rossi, but it could have been just a smudge from the printer.

“In that case, Hannah should have two assignment sheets.” Ms Bustier answered.

Hannah looked into her backpack and froze. Lila yanked the backpack and peeked inside. And really, there was another wrinkled piece of paper inside, there was another worksheet. And this one also had Hannah’s name on it. And it was unfilled too.

“Remember that illness that makes you lie and plant things in other people’s backpacks?” Marinette reminded the girl and narrowed eyes. She was going to find those forms and give them to Ms Bustier right away, Lila was going down, she was going to get her psychological consultations and with a little luck, she was not going to any date today. She opened her backpack and rummaged through. She felt her heart stop beating for a moment. The forms she filled in for Lila, they were gone.

“There is still the matter of my missing homework.” Lila sing sang.

Marinette froze as Lila’s hands went for her pink backpack. With a flick of a wrist (the one that was supposed to be painful for the arthritis) she flipped out several sheets of paper clipped together.

“And here it is, my homework.” Lila smiled triumphantly.

Ms Bustier frowned at the sheets of paper.

The crowd of students that gathered around them for the show started to groan and protest.

Nino was with Alya, the boy was typing away the message for Adrien on his phone. This was bad news. But Alya was buying it.

“I’m sure there is an explanation for this, Lila.” Ms Bustier smiled. “When you pass your worksheets through students through the class, there can be some mix up and some papers end up where they were not supposed to be.” She spoke gently and encouragingly, she was ready to play it off as an accident.

“But why me? Why it is always my homework? They must be targeting me.” Lila feigned tears. “I just wanted to fit in, to be friends with everyone and Marinette never did anything but turn everyone against me.”

“Calm down Lila, the school is going to look into it.” Ms Bustier assured.

“I’d like to add that one should also investigate just how Hannah here got into this school and perhaps this country.” Lila added. “Because she has some serious issues with basic knowledge of several subjects in our class.”

There were surprised gasps from the students who surrounded them.

“Leave her alone Lila.” Marinette shouted. It was Hannah who held her hand, almost in tears. Few hours of sleep, stressful week and a morning and then attack like this. The girl was slightly starting to break.

Marinette was tired too, she was so tired that she forgot to remember and ask the most crucial question. She was angry and frustrated by the fact that Lila played them again. And one look at her young classmate told her that she was not alone in this feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I guess you all know what the logical question is, because the fact that the girls were so late messed up with Lila's plan.  
> She could have planted the worksheets in the locker room, but since Alya's phone was removed from Hannah's locker she did not repeat the same mistake twice.


	52. Powerless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah and Marinette recover from the next lie together.  
> Adrien has lunch with his father.  
> Abd there is an akuma attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It just popped out ... this is the perfect place to stage the next akuma ... so here it is.

Powerless

Without another word and without anything to fight with, Marinette could only leave and pull Hannah along. She was certain she knew where the paperwork was, Lila must have taken it when she planted those forms in her backpack.

“We’re in trouble.” Hannah stated simply.

“I don’t understand, she claimed to have that disease that makes her lie and people still believe her lies.” Marinette groaned. “She must have planted the papers when we were running for our books during the short break. We were late, therefore we were not even there when she was expected to deliver her homework.”

Hannah nodded sadly.

“And she took the forms, those forms to get her to the psychologist and treat her medical stuff.” Marinette continued.

Hannah stared at Marinette for a moment, her eyes went wide.

“She wanted Adrien to tutor her.” Marinette concluded.

Hannah nodded. She would have let Lila have him as her tutor, if only the boy wanted to hear about it too. But he did not. He asked to be saved from the girl, and they spent lunch break together where the boy simply begged not to be left alone with her. Hannah did not know much about love, but she was certain that Lila did not love Adrien and the boy really disliked the girl.

Hannah kept repeating only one sentence that kept her afloat, ‘a minor would not be deported from France’. Her parents were there, to whom would they deport her? She had no citizenship. To which country would they send her? She had no idea.

Marinette greeted her parents, told them she would stay longer in school in the library with Hannah and the two girls went up and up all the way to the balcony on top of Marinette’s room.

“You told your parents you are staying with me in the library.” Hannah giggled.

“It is not exactly a lie.” Marinette winked.

“No, it’s not, I’ll text that to my parents and ask them to pick up my brothers.” Hannah typed the message.

“The view is so nice from here.” Marinette breathed in and then exhaled slowly. It was getting better, she was feeling better and Hannah was getting better too.

“We can fill in the paperwork again.” Hannah smiled.

“Yes, we just need the forms. We just need a plan how to get those again.” Marinette confirmed determinedly.

“Just go there and ask?” Hannah raised an eyebrow. That was something she should do and if it doesn’t work then try something more complicated.

“Okay, we could do that. Yes! We can do that as soon as the lunch break is over.” Marinette confirmed. “But if Lila has the forms, she knows what we are up to.”

Hannah shrugged. She did not mind if the girl knew that she was going to get help for her issues.

“ _The carrots are cooked_?” Hannah stuttered out (what’s done is done).

Marinette laughed.

“Yeah, what is done is done. Let’s see what we can do.” She smiled.

Both girls finally became calm enough to eat the food that Sabine prepared for lunch. The sun was shining and the day was beautiful. They were going to fix this, they were going to find a way.

Adrien was surprised to find Nathalie waiting for him straight after the entrance to the Agreste Mansion.

“The material passed the customs and is in the sewing facility, the new garments will be ready by Sunday for a photo shoot.” Nathalie informed the boy. “Your Saturday is booked with fencing in the morning and you will have another fitting in the afternoon.”

“But I just had a fitting yesterday. I’d like a few hours to hang out with my friends.”

“You will have another fitting together with Mlle Rossi.” Nathalie ignored his request. “And then you will perform your piano recital for your father in the evening. I truly hope you practised better than for your last performance.”

Adrien gaped at Nathalie and then schooled himself only to be surprised by the sight of his own father at a table.

“Hello father.” The boy greeted politely.

“Hello Adrien.” The man replied coldly. “I’m glad you found time to join me for lunch.”

Adrien wordlessly stared at his own father. His father never joined for lunch, that was the main reason why Adrien asked to have the lunch away from home. But the last time they had a meal together, it did not sit well with the boy, so he was cautious and did not let his hopes too high this time. He sat down and smiled politely although he was really worried inside.

Gabriel sensed the concern from the opposite side of the table.

“I was informed that your so called friends are trying to ruin the reputation of Mlle Rossi.” Gabriel stated bluntly.

Adrien swallowed. He could not hide it even.

Gabriel connected the tips of his fingers.

“I do not see how any of my friends could ruin her reputation, she is doing a rather good job of that herself.” The boy retorted.

It was a good thing that Gabriel could not kill someone with the was he looked at them.

Adrien swallowed. He finally collected the courage to counter his own father.

“And how exactly is she ruining her own reputation?” Gabriel pronounced the question really slowly.

“By threatening my friends in bathrooms and locker rooms.” Adrien replied quietly.

“None of it in public places.” Gabriel waved his hand as if it was irrelevant.

Adrien took in a deep breath to calm down.

“Now, it is your responsibility to show Mlle Rossi in the best possible light this evening.” Gabriel continued as he proceeded to cut his food. “I have named her my muse and she is going to be the face of the brand.” He returned back to his original conversation eager to get it over with.

Adrien felt relieved for a moment. Did that mean he was going to have more free time?

“Always beside you, of course. I plan to make you the power couple.” Gabriel announced solemnly.

Adrien almost choked. He felt Plagg scratch his chest in an attempt to calm him down.

“The car will pick you up so you can pick up your date, the gift and the flowers will be ready in the car.” Gabriel continued. “I expect you to be the perfect gentleman.” He was able to feel anger and frustrations in several people in the school. Why did he decided to have this conversation with Adrien himself? He could have instructed Nathalie to do that for him.

Adrien gulped a glass of water down.

“Nathalie informed me this is a casual event.” Gabriel continued. It sounded like a question. Yeah he should have instructed Nathalie to handle this. He needed to cut the conversation short.

The boy was catching up his breath. He was in a situation he did not want to be in, but he could not ask his friends to save him, they have suffered enough, he took a look at his father and tried to collect courage.

“And there were not too many journalists expected.” Gabriel continued. If they were angry and desperate, he could spare a few minutes to deal with his son and then send out his akuma.

Adrien was hoping for none, save one aspiring blogger.

“Actually father.” Adrien spoke before he was ready, before he was certain what was going to come out from his mouth was a wise thing to say. “I have asked my classmate, Alya, you know, she runs the Ladyblog, to do an interview with Lila on our way there.”

Gabriel tried and failed to hide his surprise at that response. He even set aside the fact that he intended to remove himself from the dining table and send out his akuma.

That made Adrien slightly braver so he continued to talk.

“Alya and Lila are good friends, you can check that, but I wanted the interview to be a surprise for Lila so she doesn’t know that yet.” The boy finished.

“Good, I will inspect the video materials and determine what should be published to keep the image of the company, of course.” Gabriel concluded.

Adrien beamed. This was the most praise he got from his father in a long time.

“Alya probably wants to publish it on the Ladyblog.” The boy added cautiously.

Gabriel changed an expression slightly. The notorious Ladyblog, the site that glorified Ladybug and Chat Noir, his enemies, was going to advertise Gabriel fashions for free? He enjoyed the irony of it.

“I have already written and signed the cheque that you will give as our humble contribution to the cause.” The man continued to talk while Adrien was able to finally chew and swallow something. Please note, the man never bothered to inform himself what the cause was.

“Thank you father.” Adrien smiled.

“Now, you have asked Nathalie to donate some used goods.” The man was not pleased.

“That is the nature of the event, father.” Adrien replied timidly.

“I will allow it. The requested goods will be in the trunk of the car.” The man informed the boy.

“Thank you father.” Adrien beamed again.

“Well, I’m finished here.” The man concluded over his empty plate, got up and left without further words to his son.

Adrien released a breath and then one more when he realized he was alone. He sneaked a piece of cheese to Plagg and took out his phone. It was a good thing he swallowed his last bite before he read the message from Nino.

Plagg peeked from his shirt and read the same message.

“How much Camembert do you need to cataclysm a human?” Adrien whispered through his teeth.

“I might just try one for free.” Plagg muttered before he schooled himself. “But it would require huge amounts of energy and I would need a lot of fine stinky cheese for that.”

Gabriel walked away swiftly, he summoned Nathalie to join him and pressed the buttons on the painting of his wife. They descended down together.

“I sensed a person that was a good akuma candidate during lunch.” He explained. “Unfortunately, the opportunity had found me at a table in the middle of an important conversation.”

“I’m sorry to hear that sir.” Nathalie replied.

Gabriel transformed into Hawk Moth and released a violet butterfly.

Unbeknownst to the two girls who had just left, Lila was making a show in the school courtyard.

Alya, Juleka and Rose were steaming, each of them experienced their own justified rage at the way Lila was treated, that was, if her homework was indeed stolen.

“Look Lila, it was the way Ms Bustier told you, your homework got misplaced.” Kim was annoyed by all the stealing excuses. Besides that new girl was as smart as Max in math and there was no way that someone like Max would ever resort to stealing. Other students nodded and slowly dissipated.

But the three friends stayed with Lila who offered them to examine the worksheet where Lila’s name was written and then erased while Hannah’s name was added. A violet butterfly fluttered into the worksheet. Alya, Rose and Juleka transformed into a Trio of Punishers. And they went after Marinette and Hannah.

Hannah was sitting in the lounge chair and dozing off when Marinette noticed the trio in the distance. She quickly glanced over to the other girl and concluded she was probably sleeping. She muttered something about hiding and going to get help and slipped inside. She transformed and escaped out through the window on the other side.

Ladybug grabbed sleepy Hannah from the lounge chair and threw her yoyo in the distance.

“What is going on?” Hannah asked when she saw the three akuma chasing after them.

“I put Marinette to safety already.” She shouted so lout that the akuma could hear. “I need to find another safe place for you.” Ladybug added quietly. She thought she had escaped when she landed on the top of Le Grand Paris. Hannah barely hid behind a large plant before the Punishers Trio showed up.

Ladybug walked away from the flower pot to draw the attention to herself. She stood at the edge of the building ready to jump away when Chat Noir landed beside her.

“Again?” Chat was not amused.

“Yes, still repeating the lessons from the last school year.” Ladybug muttered.

Chat grinned.

Ladybug called on her lucky charm and received a can of whipped cream.

“At least you remember what you’ll do with that.” Chat teased.

“Yes, but so does Hawk Moth.” She muttered back.

Lady WiFi charged at them and Ladybug thew the can of whipped cream but a violet mask glowed on her face and Lady WiFi did not slip this time. Chat Noir and Ladybug dodged her attach and slipped to different sides. The can of whipped cream rolls all the way to the plant where Hannah was hiding. Princess Fragrance raised her hand to spray Chat Noir but Hannah grabbed the can and sprayed the whipped cream over the perfume so nothing came out. Then the girl quickly threw the can to Ladybug while Chat Noir grabbed her and pulled her behind him. Reflecta was aiming at Hannah and Chat Noir. Finally Ladybug saw the opportunity and threw the can towardds Lady WiFi while she threw her yoyo and wrapped it around Reflecta’s hand. She directed Reflecta’s hand towards Lady Wifi who turned into another Reflecta while the whipped cream can hit the tablet and it fell from her hands. Chat quickly jumped over and stomped it to break while Ladybug cleansed the butterfly and called her miraculous cure.

“I will take this girl back, can you deal with them?” Ladybug asked Chat as she motioned with her head towards Alya, Juleka and Rose.

Ladybug let go of Hannah on her balcony and jumped to the side to detransform in her kitchen. She quickly ran upstairs to meet Hannah.

“Hannah, you are okay?” Marinette sighed slightly out of breath.

“Yes. Ladybug saved me and won that battle.” Hannah smiled. “Did … Did Alya, Juleka and Rose get akumatized because Lila is nuts?”

“Yes.” Marinette smiled widely. “Yes, exactly.”

It was time to return to school. Marinette and Hannah sighed together. It was strange to share so much with someone for both of them. They were both do different. (Their experiences were rather similar, but each of them kept a secret). They have basically just met. They were completely different, with varying life experiences and now they were stuck together with the same trouble. Although the consequences for each of the girls were different, both of them faced the same fear, they could be expelled. But somehow, going through the experience together was making it easier for both of them.

Save the guilt.

“If I did not help you, you would not be in trouble.” Marinette sighed wrapped in guilt. She could have let Hannah believe each of Lila’s lies and the girl would have been safe from her wrath.

In her self deprecating guilt, Marinette forgot that it was not only her friendship, but Adrien’s support for Hannah that drove Lila’s wrath.

“If you did not help me, you would not be in trouble?” Hannah stuttered out on their way to school. For her it was the only explanation.

“I was already in trouble before you arrived. I’m sorry I dragged you along.” Marinette dragged her feet along the pavement.

“You helped me a lot. Thank you! Thank you very much Marinette!” Hannah smiled gratefully. She was not sure if she was going to have another chance to utter those words. There were so many people she met and knew she was never going to see them again in her life (or at least it felt that way to someone who was only twelve). She tried to reach back to those people now that she had a phone, but the life she had was too hectic, it prevented her from looking back and searching for them, so she did not, not even online.

Marinette felt her heart crunch a bit at the tone the girl used. She felt it. The girl was saying goodbye. Already. After such a short time together.

“We are going to dig ourselves out from this.” Marinette promised although she did not believe it herself. Adrien sacrificed himself the last time, and she definitely did not want him to do that again.

Chat Noir had a thing or two to say about Lila and how trusted she could be so he spared a minute or three (because he did not even use his cataclysm) to share how Lila feigned her injury to drive him away from Ladybug during Oni Chan. He left the girls to digest this new piece of information and hurried back to the mansion. He needed to so something and he needed to do it right away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was editing this chapter and Gabriel was supposed to be loosing the opportunity to akumatize Hannah and Marinette.  
> But ...  
> And the next chapter is a bit difficult.


	53. Sell Your Soul to the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien tries to persuade Lila and Chloe to leave Hannah and Marinette alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Lila thinks she already won, she has all the cards, what would she do?  
> Although Alya might just grab Lila by her throat and scream 'liar' in her face, misleading Chat Noir does not mean everything else is a lie, and Alya might be conflicted and need time to digest all the information. Besides, she has an interview with Lila in a few hours. Let it boil.

Sell your soul to the devil

“Hello Lila.” Adrien leaned onto the wall oh so casually. He was picture perfect, looked ready for a photo shoot, his pose was well practised, it obscured the fact that the boy was panting and exhausted from running all the way from the car and up the stairs until he found the girl on the hallway. She was preoccupied with some grand talk when he first saw her but when he finally reached closer, she was alone, or at least not in the centre of attention. She sent her entourage away to talk to her date one to one. This also meant there were eyes on them from all directions.

“Hello Adrien.” She replied slyly and walked over slowly, swaying her hips.

Adrien was disgusted but he schooled himself into a well practised smile. He had a plan and he made his driver get him back to school early enough to make things in motion. He waited until she got close enough so that he could speak quietly so nobody overheard.

“We have a date this afternoon.” Adrien reminded the girl with a flat tone and a cold smile, he knew which one to use, he saw it on his own father, so many times, directed at him. Yes, he had a date with her, there was no escaping it, might as well put it to some good use.

“Aren’t you looking forward to our date?” She exclaimed and took one more step closer.

“Actually, I am really worried. I don’t think I would make a good company this evening.” Adrien pondered. His father told him to be the perfect date for her, but she did not know that.

“What do you mean?” Lila frowned.

“You see, few of my friends were victims of … “ He paused and glared at her for a moment to make sure she understood what he meant. “ … certain misunderstandings and unfortunate slip ups.”

He paused.

Lila raised an eyebrow. She wanted to cross her arms, but people were watching from afar, so she cocked out her hip in a way she considered seductive.

Adrien flinched away on instinct.

“And now I am really concerned for their well being. I feel really distressed. I could not possibly make the date enjoyable for you out from concern for them.” The boy continued to ponder. “In fact, I think I would be so down I would be useless for the whole weekend if their problems were not resolved to their best interest.” Yup, he was his father’s son.

Adrien straightened up and crossed his arms. He looked expectantly.

Lila twirled her hair around her index finger and assumed a pose that she considered looked seductive to the onlookers. She could do what he asked for, she could go for an explanation that Ms Bustier offered. It was all just some misunderstanding, the girls took her worksheets by mistake and she got them back and everything could be hunky dory. But she did not speak that out loud as much as she wanted to, someone else might overhear.

“You wouldn’t go against your father’s muse now, would you?” Lila asked slyly and took one more step further. She needed to examine the terrain, she needed to know where she stood. Perhaps she did not need to step back this time.

“Why would helping my friends be something against you?” Adrien could not help the disgust on his face before he schooled himself back into perfect model smile, but his eyes were giving him away.

“Oh, you got it all wrong, dear. They are against me.” Lila leaned in.

“You and me both know how the story goes so cut it out.” The boy leaned away. He resisted to tell her to go and boil an egg. She did not deserve his jokes.

“Oh, I’m sure you will be the perfect gentleman this evening, not to ruin the reputation of Gabriel fashions.” She smirked. She did not care if he wanted her by his side, his father was going to make him be there, at least for the public and the press, and that was what she wanted.

“You will have nothing to blackmail me with once you get them expelled.” Adrien warned.

“And I’m sure your father does not appreciate the friendships you started to build in school.” She continued with a sly smile.

This was an open threat to him. He knew it.

“Weather or not my father likes them, they are my friends.” The boy stated clearly.

“We’ll see about that, we’ll see.” Lila swayed her hips away. She performed her duty yesterday, she annoyed Ella, Etta and Chris to the point they got akumatized. Gabriel promised and the man was expected to deliver, his own son as her date. She was going to an actual charity event with an actual celebrity. Finally, she was going to have something behind her dreamy stories.

Adrien was left alone in the corridor.

“You offered your soul to the devil and she refused?” Plagg teased.

“Plagg, shut up and hide.” Adrien patted his chest and huffed.

“You look rather disturbed dude.” Nino nudged his elbow.

Adrien looked at his best friend and blinked a few times.

“I am. I feel really disturbed.” Adrien replied with narrowed eyes.

Nino flinched back at his expression.

“What happened?” Nino inquired.

“Nino, I just faced a monster.” The boy replied after a silent moment with a firm look in his eyes.

The other boy just stared back with his eyes wide.

“Oh Adriekins.” Chloe greeted and latched onto the boys arm. He was dragged away with a pleading look from his best bro.

“From one monster to another.” Nino muttered. But Adrien heard him and shook his head. Nino shrugged apologetically. Adrien smiled and turned back to his childhood friend.

“About our recent addition to the class.” Chloe continued in a tone that was uncharacteristically quiet for her.

Adrien turned all his attention to his childhood friend.

“I did some research with Sabrina.” She continued. Adrien was well aware who in fact did the research. “Her family is in the clear but she is not.” The girl whispered secretly.

“I told you so.” The boy smiled his model smile. He was hoping this was getting somewhere.

“You were right on her behalf. Now that also means her parents must have signed some documents with false claims on it.” Chloe continued.

Adrien stiffened.

“Chloe, please, you can do the right thing for once. Don’t hurt her.” The boy pleaded.

Chloe huffed.

“From what I’ve heard that happened during the lunch break I do not need to bother with that.” She replied flatly.

Adrien felt his insides implode. He was not sure if he was relieved to hear that his childhood friend might not go after his friend out of pure laziness or horrified to know how powerless he was.

“Yes, Lila is doing rather a good job on her own.” Adrien confirmed.

“She really hates Hannah and Marinette.” Chloe confirmed as a matter of a fact.

“She does.” The boy muttered. He could not help but feel guilty for that, if Lila was hurting his friends just because he was their friend, and they were friends to him. “You know, it would really annoy Lila if you helped them.”

The class was unbelievably quiet while they awaited the teacher. One of the reasons might be that three students were akumatized during the lunch break, another that the three of them glared at Lila when she finally entered the classroom, so the usual talker was quiet too.

Monsieur Poincare entered the classroom carrying a pile of worksheets. The students were taking their seats and two girls ran into the classroom. They both greeted the class quietly and sat down just before the bell rang. Adrien turned around to look at them and smiled. But then he noticed Lila’s smug expression just behind them and his heart sunk.

“Hello class. Thanks to our new routine I got your worksheets in the morning and was able to grade them so you can all see how well have you done.” The teacher handed over the pile of worksheets.

“Oh Monsieur Poincare, you did not get to grade my worksheet.” Lila called.

“That is okay, I will have a look into it later.” The man called her to bring her homework to him.

“Apparently it got stolen by the same perpetrator as my last homework.” Lila whispered to Rose while she was climbing up the stairs. She was sufficiently loud to be overheard by the rest of the class.

Marinette glared daggers.

Hannah slumped her shoulders.

Adrien was annoyed by to what extent the both girls apparently looked guilty to the rest of the class.

The class dragged on, the teacher explained how to solve a particular type of a problem and then the rest of the class solved it.

Hannah solved the problem her own way first and then the way teacher described. She admired the subtle differences and smiled. Math has always been the best way to keep her mind off from the problems she had. And science. And languages. Well, most of the school subjects were, even history and literature were useful to distract her from her everyday problems.

Marinette absent mindedly listened to the explanation and copied the numbers. She needed to get those forms again. Her knock on the door of principal Damocles at the end of the lunch break was not fruitful, the man was not there. She intended to continue trying.

“Excellent, now I will give you a problem to solve yourself while I get to this late homework and some paperwork.” The teacher sat down and attended a few papers.

“I’m sorry sir, but I was not late, my homework was stolen from me.” Lila countered. “You got it only because I caught the perpetrator and retrieved the worksheets myself.” She added proudly.

“Your worksheets were exactly where you put them.” Marinette muttered. She knew Alya overheard but she did not bother to make an eye contact. She was not in the mood for another argument. But Alya just recovered from being an akuma and still processed everything Chat had said afterwards.

The teacher hummed to acknowledge he heard her as he skimmed over the pages. He wrote a few comments and even crossed one task with a comment and finally wrote a grade. But then he focused on two more forms that were obviously different than the worksheets. He turned them around to a certain page, scribbled a comment and signed.

Hannah was finished with the task long ago. She did it in two different ways and contemplated if there was a third one when she looked at the teacher and the worksheets on his desk. She recognized them and a hopeful smile adorned her face.

She got up, leaned over her desk and poked Marinette in her back with her pencil.

Lila noticed her move.

“Look on the teacher’s desk.” Hannah whispered quietly.

Lila heard it and focused on the papers on the desk. She saw her worksheets covered with comments and a mark that was much lower than she expected. Well, Lila considered herself kind enough to let Hannah enjoy herself as much as she wanted in that low grade that Lila got, Marinette too, for that matter, because she was going to get rid of the two girls soon, really soon.

Marinette tried to focus on the desk. There were worksheets with many comments. Lila was not as good as she thought. Then she looked at the other papers. The forms she and Hannah filled in were there. She could see them from her place. The teacher had them. Not Lila. There was hope. There was still hope. There was always hope. Chat Noir told her, it was the two of them against the world. Well, this time it was Hannah and her. They had friends too, but she did not want Adrien to get involved, not this time, not the way he did it the last time.

Marinette produced a nod.

Hannah understood she had recognized the forms too.

“Hannah, I see you are finished. Can you come to the blackboard and bring your notebook with you.” The teacher called.

Hannah ran down the stairs and brought her notebook. Her noisy rush called the attention of the rest of the class.

“Always the attention seeker.” Lila sneered. There were times when she entertained the idea of letting both girls stay in school and letting them both know it was in her power to remove them at any point. She would have enjoyed that, she would have forced the two of them to admire her as the rest of the class.

Nathaniel was drawing, the focus of his classmate was somewhere else and he was not letting go of this fine expression. It was going to look so good in his new comic book.

Hannah solved the problem twice. She stuttered the explanation and the teacher let her form her sentences slowly. Marinette had to admire the girl, she handled it so well. Adrien released a shaky breath, his hand played with the pencil on his desk, nervously, Nino glanced over from time to time. He had to do something, he had to keep his friends and himself in school.

Then the teacher demonstrated how an online tool solved the same problem. The procedure was very similar to what he explained, but there was a twist to it, because few steps were skipped.

“Therefore, you should know that I know when you do not solve your worksheets yourself. I have scratched out such answers.” The teacher explained and looked pointedly at Lila.

Lila gasped. But soon, she feigned tears and started to whine.

“I am really sorry teacher, but Adrien refused to tutor me and the class president refused to help me with that and that was the only resource I could go to.” The girl whined.

“Oh, I’m really sorry Lila, if only you had asked, I would have explained that to you.” Max cut in.

Right, she forgot about Max.

“But you are so busy with programming and you wrote that fantastic game and you have Markov and I couldn’t possibly bother you with that.” Lila whined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it looks cut in the middle, but the next chapter should be ready soon.


	54. And get it back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila makes a move, the math class finishes and the girls go to the library after classes.  
> Chloe is not sure what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I expected to have the presence of mind to post it last night, but obviously I did not.

And get it back

The math teacher cleared his throat. He was good at teaching math, he was not that bad at resolving the arguments in a classroom. But he preferred to spend his time on teaching and not on teenage drama. He was usually able to tell when students did not solve the problems themselves, asking them to repeat it on a blackboard was a very efficient tool. To him, the facts were clear. He would have preferred to tutor Lila himself, if that was allowed, than to deal with these stupid accusations.

When Ms Bustier handed over the worksheets and informed him of the most recent developments about missing homework, the man was not very excited about it to say the least, annoyed would be a better word. And then he found those forms among the worksheets. That was something he seldom faced in practise in his relatively short teaching career and he needed time to study them and decide what to do about them.

“Actually, I assure you that the class president did do something to take care about your needs.” The teacher replied calmly as he looked at the papers on his desk. “And I’d like to thank her for that.” He had a score of students who did not do their tasks, who needed tutoring or just some time to catch up, he had students who were lazy, but if this girl only focused her energy on her studies, he was sure she had it in her to do all the tasks right.

Lila’s eyes went impossibly wide at that comment. Those papers on the teacher’s desk, they must have meant something. Could those be the administrative forms that Nino mentioned to Alya last night? Was that the boring stuff that Marinette did during lunch, as Nino pointed. That would explain why going through Marinette’s and Hannah’s lockers was in vain. She needed to lay her hands on those papers. She needed to steal them. And her worksheets were right there on the desk. She just needed to time her moment right. (Note the irony, Lila reminded Ms Bustier about the homework and Marinette gave the forms with the worksheets to Ms Bustier so Lila did not find them in her backpack later on when she planted her own worksheets there.)

The teacher began to explain the way to solve the problem to all those who did not do it right the first time and then proceeded to the next problem. When his back was turned away, Lila began to descend the stairs, slowly and quietly. Everyone was busy writing in their notebooks, with a little luck nobody would notice what she was doing and she had the perfect excuse if she got caught.

“Lila, What are you doing?” Marinette screamed when she noticed the girl at the teacher’s desk snatching all the papers from it at once.

Adrien was already on his feet and jumped after her. It was one swift move and all the papers she did not even hold yet properly were all over the floor.

The teacher did not want to stop his explanation and reluctantly lowered his hands, then he finally turned around to be met with rather unexpected scene.

“Oh I was just collecting my worksheets to see what I did wrong.” Lila exclaimed.

“So you picked up all the paperwork from the desk?” Adrien was already on all four, he recognized the forms that the girls were filling in yesterday. Marinette was already by his side ready to step in and intervene and snatched them away, then she returned the forms directly into the teacher’s hands.

“There are your worksheets Lila.” Adrien offered a batch of papers to the girl.

Lila’s eyes followed the forms instead of her worksheets, she did not make out what they were, but if Marinette had her hands in them, they were not going to help.

“Oh silly me. It must be my arthritis picking up again.” Lila giggled and dismissed the accusation that she was stealing the other forms.

“Please go back to your seats.” The teacher asked politely. “And continue with this problem.”

The teacher flipped through the pages on the forms and examined something. Then he scribbled something on, signed his initials next to it, folded the forms and tucked them safely in the front pocket of his shirt. The papers were sticking out awkwardly, but he did not care, he continued to teach.

“Excuse me, but I never wrote this, someone must have erased what I have written and replaced it with the procedure copied from the internet.” Lila cried after a few minutes. Because there was no stopping her when she was on a mission, and it looked like she was winning.

The teacher turned away from the blackboard. He was not the only one who was annoyed.

“You see, my homework was stolen and the persons who stole it must have tampered with the results.” Lila explained.

“Very well, Mlle Rossi, I will give you the same worksheet again and you can solve the problems again and submit your homework next week.” The man replied with a gentle smile. If the forms he just signed were correct, there was no argument there. She needed psychological help beyond his capabilities and that was it.

Marinette and Hannah gasped at the accusations as well as absence of any defence from the teacher. They felt condemned already. Hannah slumped her shoulders and started to solve the same math problem over and over, just not to think about it. Marinette frowned and clenched her fists.

“Now I will distribute your next set of worksheets that you can complete during the study hour.” The man sat down when the bell rang, but never left the classroom. He had other tasks to do, other worksheets to examine and grade, other lectures to prepare and he did not mind doing that while he was sitting in a class during the study hour and making sure nothing went out of hand. And he estimated that the probability for that was rather high.

Students worked in silence, the teacher was there. Lila observed the teacher and was thinking about what to do about those forms. Stealing them seemed pointless, but she wanted to know what was written there. She already made a plan and she was just about to execute it when the student in front of her got up from her seat.

Hannah went down the stairs and straight to the teacher. She carried her worksheets in her trembling hands. She wanted to talk and to defend herself from the accusations. The math teacher should be sympathetic to a girl who was so good in math.

“You are finished?” The teacher inquired.

She nodded and gave him the worksheets. The man examined them with a small smile and noted the correct answers. Max already stood just behind Hannah.

“Excellent.” The teacher smiled and noted the result on the top sheet. “You can go about the rest of your homework.” He smiled to Hannah and sent her away, she never collected the courage to speak.

Max handed over his worksheets.

Hannah reluctantly took a step back, then slowly turned around and went to her seat. She took out other worksheets she got for her homework and decided to deal with that. Anything was better than thinking about what she got herself into this time.

Other students approached the teacher to ask questions and explanations and Lila quickly scribbled something so she could to pretend that she needed an explanation.

The bell rang.

“Hannah, Marinette, I got an instruction to direct you to the library.” The teacher announced, but he smiled gently. “Have a nice weekend everyone.” And with that he got out from the classroom.

There were awkward stares directed at Hannah and Marinette. But there were awkward stares directed at Lila too.

Adrien winked at Nino and then made a point of following the two girls to the library. All three of them walked in silence. The fear of being expelled pressing on them from all sides. It was difficult to breathe.

“We are going to solve this, okay?” Adrien promised. “I don’t know how, but we are going to do it.”

His hands were already on Marinette’s shoulders.

“Just … don’t do what you did the last time.” Marinette pleaded.

Adrien had a strained expression on his face. He felt Plagg in his shirt.

“Well if you say so.” The boy smiled gently. He tried to do it already, the problem was it did not work this time, there was no point in admitting that to the girls, right?

“Something else then.” The boy smiled.

Hannah smiled and nodded. The forms were with their math teacher. There was still hope.

Adrien shifted one of his hands onto Hannah’s shoulder and the girl nodded. She did not want to worry the other two with her concerns any more, both of them had too much on their plates already.

The girls went into the library and the boy turned around to go to the locker room and change into his fencing gear.

Chloe stood next to Sabrina. Both were scrolling through their phones frantically. Chloe saw across the courtyard where Adrien took Marinette and Hannah to the library. She huffed, she knew she had the power, well her father had the power in fact, but she had such power over the man that he would do whatever she wanted him to do. She needed to make a decision, she wanted more data, she needed more data.

“Sabrina, I need more information about that new girl. I trust you to have Max and that funny robot of his dig into this further, I need to get my nails and hair done. I think I’m having some last minute invitation to a charity event.” Chloe instructed and strode away to the waiting limo. Sabrina nodded eagerly. She caught up with Max and Markov joined the conversation soon. They made a plan and went for more data. Chloe always got what she wanted. Well, almost always, anyway.

“Hey Chloe.” Kagami greeted. She was going towards the locker room. She had her fencing practise soon. But she stopped for a moment.

“Hi Kagami.” Chloe examined her nails.

The two girls made a point of not looking at each other. Then they both stared at each other.

Chloe crossed her arms.

Kagami pointedly put her hands on her hips.

The staring contest continued.

Kagami recklessly exposed her identity to Hawk Moth during her first akuma battle, the one with Ikari Grozen, so she did not blame the girl for the reveal of her own identity, but Chloe and her were not exactly friends.

Chloe, on the other hand, did not know that Ryuko revealed her identity to Hawk Moth before the Miracle Queen did it. Chloe was still angry about everything that happened, she felt betrayed by Ladybug, the least she was able to do was to return the favour. Besides, she was offered a miraculous, from Hawk Moth, but still, one does not just say no to a miraculous, okay. He offered her to be Queen Bee again. And she wanted that so much.

“If you are here to lecture me, don’t bother.” Chloe huffed.

Kagami smiled. She won.

“I guess I don’t have to.” The fencer strode away.

Chloe rolled her eyes and walked out from school. Butt here she saw Luka who watched the school entrance expectantly. Then his eyes fell on Chloe who was still looking at the boy. He smirked. She rolled her eyes and wanted to just walk by. That was the guy to whom Ladybug had given the snake miraculous. But then she stopped and stared at the boy again. It was her who revealed his identity to Hawk Moth. She made sure she was standing on the school steps so that her head was above his and she was able to look at the boy from above.

Luka never looked at her, he was looking at the door.

Chloe huffed and walked away. Adrien’s request to do the right thing kept ringing in her head. She was so proud of never letting her feelings get in her way. What if she simply got rid of her feelings for Adrien and Marinette and Hannah and Lila and the other miraculous wielders and … wait, feelings? No, she never had such problems.

Monsieur Poincare stood in the library just behind the door. He watched the previous exchange through the glass door with a small smile on his lips.

“I will have to thank Adrien for bringing you here safely.” He had a knowing smile. Marinette blushed. Hannah saw nothing to it.

Marinette watched the forms in the teacher’s pocket.

“Oh yes, yet another task for a Friday afternoon.” The man chuckled. “Well I better run if I want to fetch the Owl. Take care.” He patted the papers and left the library.

“Don’t be sad girls, you just got late to school this morning.” The librarian greeted them. “Lets arrange this books and settle some files and this hour will pass in no time.”

The girls put down their stuff but their faces were still down.

“Come on, this is not just about staying for an hour on a Friday afternoon?” The woman continued cheerfully. “Or are you worried about that party in the community centre?”

Both girls sighed, the last thing on their minds was the party.

“You wanted to make yourselves look pretty? Well I think you are beautiful just the way you are.” She smiled.

The girls looked at each other.

“And a smile looks better on you than a ton of make up.” The librarian continued.

Well, Marinette did wear some make up, but Hannah had absolutely none.

“And if you wanted to dress up and impress some boys, it is not that kind of an event.” Then the woman turned to Hannah. “Well, you should know.”

The two girls took several books in their hands and started to return them to the shelves under the instructions and a lot of babble from the librarian. The woman was rather talkative, far more than both girls were used to.

After about half an hour into their chore, the books were all returned to their places and the woman made the girls sit down.

“Come on, who died?” The librarian insisted. “There is something seriously wrong and I want to know.”

“We are being expelled.” Hannah cried while tears started to brim her eyes.

Marinette held her hand.

“Both of you? Expelled?” The woman asked and got a nod for each question. “By who? That old owl?”

The girls actually giggled at that.

“Now tell me, what have you done.” The librarian ordered.

Marinette told a very brief and edited version of the story about Lila. Then Hannah decided to admit what she did.

“Oh dear, oh dear, this doesn’t sound good. But one does not get expelled from school for a such a trivial crime that could easily be explained away.” The librarian smiled.

Marinette only hoped that principal Damocles would think the same.

They returned some files and arranged them alphabetically before the teacher finally released them to go. They had just sufficient time to stop by the bakery and then go to the community centre.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is having a fencing practise in the next one.


	55. Release some steam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Kagami at a fencing practise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's all just take a break for a chapter.

Release some steam

Adrien had fencing. That was what kept his head up. He was looking forward to the fencing. Well, there was nothing new in that, he liked fencing and he enjoyed it even more ever since Kagami joined them. It was a pity they were taking only one new student to the group, he really liked how Marinette performed, he enjoyed showing her the moves, it was nice, it was pleasant. Fighting Kagami was a challenge, she always kept him on the edge, always pushed for more.

And the purpose of fencing was already fulfilled because he was not thinking about all the problems he had, his friends had, nor his forthcoming date. Ugh, and now he was thinking about that data again.

“You look angry.” Kagami noted after greeting. She was not surprised by the fact. She even expected him to be. She would have been. She might have been akumatized for that.

Obviously, the expression on his face was still controlled by his subconsciousness. Yep, he needed to update his friend on the recent developments.

“Hi Kagami.” Adrien sighed. He showed her the message from Nino and explained briefly what happened while he adjusted his gear and they walked over to the gym.

“You offered yourself to her in exchange for leaving us alone? Again?” Kagami was incredulous. Of course, from all the drama she chose to react to that part. Because the thought was making her sick. Yes, getting her friends framed and expelled was making her angry, but this was just too much.

“Um, it wasn’t like that!” Adrien protested. “You make it sound dirty. If I’m going on a date with her, I might as well ask for something in return.”

“Do you know how that sounds Adrien?” Kagami frowned. She knew he did not mean it that way, but the boy was oblivious.

The boy needed a few moments to replay the words in his head but then he turned completely red in the face.

Kagami snickered at that. Yeah, he really did not have a clue, no wonder he did not have a clue about Marinette’s feelings for him.

“I didn’t mean it that way.” The boy groaned and covered his face with the fencing mask to hide his blush.

“You would make an excellent geisha.” Kagami teased and covered her face too.

“En garde.” Monsieur D’Argencourt ordered.

Kagami took a few easy points. Adrien barely showed any effort. He was too much absorbed in everything that Kagami told him. While fencing was supposed to be distraction from the date, now the date was distracting him from fencing.

“Come on, attack, imagine it is her under this mask and attack.” Kagami shouted. She was there to distract him, but this comment was not really helping.

“I wouldn’t touch you with a pole vaulting stick if you were her.” Adrien snarled. And that was the truth, he would have walked away.

“Okay, okay okay” the fencing coach approached. “I see it is not your day Adrien.” It was his job to keep the students focused on fencing and teach them new tricks. As an educator, he was always concerned for the well being of his students, not only on their fencing skills.

“Some of his friends are in danger.” Kagami replied in place of the boy. “And he is consumed in his feeling instead of using them to focus and the energy to fight.” The coach needed to know what the problem was in order to fix it.

“I see.” The coach stroked his chin. He got an idea. “What are the names of your friends?”

“Marinette and Hannah.” Adrien replied quietly. He had no idea where this was going.

“Knight Adrien.” The coach announced solemnly.

The words shook Adrien from his mood.

Kagami smirked under her mask.

“The honour of the two fair ladies under your protection, lady Marinette and lady Hannah, has been endangered by a blasphemous witch.” Monsieur D’Argencourt continued to speak as if he was announcing a medieval duel.

Adrien grinned behind his head gear and smirked. ‘princess Marinette’ he muttered to himself.

“In order to defend their honour you are going to fight knight Kagami.” The coach announced.

Kagami was not really sure how she felt about being chosen to defend the honour of Lila, even if only implicitly, even if only for a game. But then she shook her head and decided to go for it, the show was for Adrien, really.

Kagami and Adrien bowed solemnly.

They fought fiercely. Adrien evaded the attacks easily, on pure instinct, his brain did not even process the movement completely and his body was already on the side while Kagami’s foil hit the empty air. His counter attacks were swift and to the point. Even Kagami was surprised when he stroke.

Satisfied with the result, monsieur D’Argencourt walked away to attend to other fencers.

Adrien and Kagami continued their duel. At one point, Adrien let his hips do the dancing, he made a move to one side and then jumped to strike from the other. But Kagami was trying to do the same thing and without a plan, Adrien’s body slammed into Kagami.

Adrien dropped his foil.

“Are you okay?” He asked worriedly. He tried to feel her for her injuries (yes that’s right, he was looking only for injuries, his hands did not linger nor stray and he was never going to admit if he found anything else there).

“Yes of course” Kagami laughed at first but then her hands were all over him.

The coach whistled.

“Hey, you two, this is not wrestling.” The coach warned.

Adrien was not sure if he felt awkward because his hands were all over Kagami, because her hands were all over him or because they got caught.

Kagami was only sorry they got caught so soon.

They both looked at each other, but their faces were hidden by their masks. They were both glad about that, because they were both blushing.

Adrien picked up his foil from the floor and walked over to his position. He reattached the cable that god detached when he fell. He assumed the posture and waited.

Kagami picked up her foil and stood up.

“En garde.” Monsieur D’Argencourt ordered and stood to the side.

They fought relentlessly. It was impossible to strike a point for both of them. Each of them knew how the other one moved, it was easy to evade the blow. Adrien did not need to think, his body was doing it for him, his muscle memory did the work while he pondered about what just happened.

Kagami evaded the blows and stroke back on instinct. She did not bother to think about strategy of attack nor how to lure the boy into attacking her only to score in a counter attack. She was performing all her usual and well trained moves, they worked exceptionally well on anyone but Adrien. Because he knew her so well.

Monsieur D’Argencourt really enjoyed it while he watched his two best students perform a duel. They were both exceptionally good and it was a poetry to watch. So he stood there with his hands joined at his back and observed, he admired the technique and the speed.

He did not notice anything new nor original in their attacks nor evasive manoeuvres. But the duel was still fascinating. He discovered that he watched them so many times he could anticipate their next move himself.

But after he was called few times to attend to another pair of fencers and help them with their own issues, the man was forced to turn around and walk away.

Kagami danced a few more steps back, forward and to the side. Adrien evaded that attack and stroke a counter attack that was completely predictable, at least for her.

Then she noticed that Moniseur D’Argencourt was not watching them any more. In fact he looked rather preoccupied with scolding other two fencers on the far end of the gymnasium.

Kagami knew what Adrien’s next steps would be.

The girl, rather intentionally and without any hesitation, slammed her body straight into the boy.

Adrien dropped his foil, wrapped his arms around her and protected her as they both landed onto the floor. They rolled away, but Kagami stopped them when she was on top.

Adrien was breathing heavily. He could not see her face, he was glad he was hidden behind his own mask. He took a moment to contemplate. This felt good, not the same as when he held Ladybug, but still good. Then he grinned the same way he did when Chat and Ladybug were in the same position. Except, Kagami could not see him.

Kagami was on top of Adrien, she rested her elbows on the floor and her hands got trapped between the two. She was breathing heavily and took a few moments to decide her next move. But she was rather overwhelmed with what she had just done. It took a few moments of her hesitation, only to realize that the boy’s hands were lying flatly on his sides, after they fell, he released his hold of her and did not try anything else.

“Are you okay?” She inquired and let her hands examine his body (or rather his protective fencing gear).

“Um, yes.” Adrien mustered the calmest answer he could. Because this girl was still on top of him.

Finally, Kagami wiggled away. Adrien was glad for his fencing protective gear because her knee would have delivered a painful blow between his legs if he did not. The girl probably did not even know how close she was.

They both picked up their foils and assumed their fighting positions. After a few more moments they took to catch their breaths, and failed because their enhanced breathing and heart rates had other causes that their physical activity, they finally began the next duel.

Kagami slammed into the boy again. He might have expected it, subconsciously, because he held her firmly and tried to regain balance.

Until she tripped him.

She tripped him.

And they landed on the floor.

And she rolled them away until he was on the top.

“Is this better?” She asked.

Rather confused Adrien was not sure what was supposed to be better and with respect to what. Yup, he enjoyed himself, this was fun (and he definitely forgot about his date and all the school drama for at least a few moments) and he felt good, but that was it.

“Ahem” They both heard the voice of their fencing coach who stood above them.

“Knight Adrien, I believe you were expected to defend the honour of two ladies by fighting this mighty knight.” Monsieur D’Argencourt was scolding.

Adrien jumped to his feet and offered his hand to Kagami.

She took his hand and got to her feet too.

“You were not expected to dishonour you opponent this way.” The fencing coach finished his scolding and turned away.

“Oh, young hearts.” He muttered to himself and walked away with slightly melancholic smile on his face.

“What was that?” Adrien asked no one in particular, perhaps even more to himself that to Kagami who stood beside him.

Kagami frowned and felt defeated. She enjoyed rolling around, she enjoyed the physical contact, and for a moment she thought he did too, but now he sounded perplexed and she was not able to see his face.

“Why don’t we call it a day?” She proposed.

They sat in the locker room side by side.

“What … what exactly happened … there?” The boy asked cautiously.

Kagami suddenly understood what Marinette was afraid of. If she admitted how she felt, if she admitted what she did and what her motives were, was she going to loose his friendship?

“Just fencing.” She shrugged.

“Fencing … we never fenced like that.” The boy blushed and turned away.

“I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.” Kagami stated.

“No! It is not that.” Adrien countered. He was not uncomfortable, he … enjoyed it? But now both of them were without masks and he was far less certain.

“Then what is it?” She insisted.

He was not ready to admit it to himself what that was.

“It is about the charity event isn’t it?” She inquired.

“Yeah.” Adrien replied although he was sure it was not that, he actually forgot about that, he was just not sure what he was doing, he did it without thinking and he seldom did something without thinking when he did not wear a mask. Well, technically, he was wearing a mas, his fencing equipment mask.

“Thank you Kagami. I forgot all my problems, at least for a moment.” Adrien admitted.

“Adrien, you do not forget about problems, you deal with them.” She protested.

They walked out from the school hand in hand.

“See you there.” They both greeted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhm, heh, that  
> back to the business


	56. The Car Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The car ride to the party, first Adrien gives and interview and then Lila.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alya might have a trick or two up her sleeve.

(The car ride)

Adrien took a deep breath and watched Kagami leave with a slight dread in his stomach. He had a date with probably the last girl he ever would take on a date. If he took any of his raging fans, there was some chance that they would listen to his pleas and keep some distance for a smile and some company. But he was going on a date with a monster that wanted his friends out of his life.

“Hey dude!” A friendly voice got him out from the spiral. Nino was ready for his best bro, he was home, took care of Chris and handed him over to Nora. No time to talk to Alya but technicalities on their way from her home to school. And there was something bothering Alya. He could tell.

“Hey Nino! Alya!” Adrien greeted as he turned around. He smiled widely. His friends were there. He was no going through this alone. He explained to Alya, as Chat Noir, that Lila was not to be trusted. The girl was taken by surprise and asked for an interview later on.

“So I was thinking, I want to do this as a live stream on the Ladyblog and later your father can use whatever he wants.” Alya grinned. She had a plan to ask Lila about Oni Chan and to film an interview with Chat Noir on the subject, might as well pop in a question today.

“Okay.” Adrien smiled. The feeling in his gut so unsettled that he really did not care what was Alya’s plan. She never shared anything about what Chat said, but Adrien could tell that Alya did not trust Lila any more.

Nino was holding Alya’s phone on a stick and the girl began announcing their famous classmate. She was doing well, Adrien could tell. He was announced plenty of times.

“So, tell us a bit about the event.” She asked Adrien.

“This is just a little charity event in a local community centre.” The boy spoke about his new classmate that went there regularly and about how he wanted to support local charities, not only world renown organisations. He was given such short speeches so many times he had no problems putting a few sentences on the fly.

Then they entered the car. When talking about Hannah, he made sure to praise her schoolwork and not to mention any of her private problems or background, that was for the girl to tell.

“Are you excited about your date?” Alya asked, she was obviously very excited about the whole event. Weather it was honest support for Lila, acting or excitement about her plan to reveal Lila as a liar was not clear.

Adrien offered back really forced and strained smile and he did not bother to make it right.

“I am looking forward to meeting all our classmates there, Alya.” Adrien smiled widely. He carefully worded his sentences to make clear that it was the same event where the whole school was going, nothing exclusive, nothing posh and high fashion and everyone in Paris was welcome. Then he talked about how much he loved school, fencing, having fun with his friends.

He did not forget to praise his friends, Alya and Nino for journalism, making videos and music, then he continued about Marinette and counted on his fingers all her accomplishments, Hannah and math, Kagami and fencing, Max and video games, Kim and Alix and sports, he did not forget to mention the Kitty Section and gush about it.

He never bothered to mention Lila.

When they reached Lila’s place, Adrien got out from the car and phoned Lila to come out. His bodyguard passed the flowers to Alya to give them to Adrien. Alya laughed and passed the flowers to her classmate. Then she babbled to the phone about the event, she basically repeated everything Adrien told her and added a thing or two that she knew from writing the announcement on the school blog.

Lila was nervous and excited. She got a nice Gabriel dress. It was not an evening gown she really wanted. They insisted it was a casual event and that they provided her photos of several choices. She opted for one with a very wide skirt, although it did not even reach her knees, open back and rather open front too. She was annoyed that her mother was still in a meeting and she could not brag about her date to her. She got the call from Adrien and went out of the building.

The boy stood there in his everyday clothes in front of the open car.

Lila frowned the moment she saw him.

“What do you think you’re wearing?” Lila hissed and took the flowers from his hands unceremoniously. She was angry. He complained about not being able to be a good date for her unless she left Marinette and Hannah alone and she refused to do so. His clothes must have been his way to protest.

“It is a casual event at a local community centre.” Adrien grinned his best model smile as he stood to the side and held the door for her to enter. He only gave her his hand when she asked him to.

Lila sat down in the car and carefully arranged the folds of her skirt.

“Please let me introduce Adrien’s date.” Alya announced and that was the first time Lila noticed her and Nino in the back seat. Alya continued to ramble about her classmate while Lila buckled her seatbelt and got herself slightly composed. Adrien closed the door and went to sit in the front.

Lila glared towards the front seat and then schooled her face, turned to Alya, pretended to be shy and giggled at her questions. Alya announced Lila as their classmate and left it for Lila to announce herself.

“Oh, Alya, have you been following anything but Ladybug these days?” Lila chided. “Have you forgotten that I am here as the new muse of Gabriel Agreste and Adrien’s date for the charity gala this evening?” She smiled widely and then covered her mouth with her hand as if she was shy.

“Why don’t you tell our viewers more about yourself?” Alya asked without mentioning anything that Lila used to brag about, eveo in the interviews on the Ladyblog.

So Lila about Gabriel, Prince Ali, Jagged Stone, mentioned experiences with charities and at one point looked worriedly at the camera and then smiled shyly and waved. Whatever she wanted could be edited out later, she thought. She let herself speak.

“Don’t worry, I will follow you all the time tonight.” Alya said with a wink as a response to something Lila said.

“Oh, Adrien and me … we were hoping to have some time alone … you know … as on a date?” Lila covered her face with her hand and pretended to be shy about what she was insinuating.

“We are the faces of Gabriel, we do no such things on events, not even on dates.” Adrien piped in from his front seat. He felt sick at her suggestion and had to react.

“Oh.” Lila giggled. “Of course.”

“Is this your first charity event?” Alya asked next.

“Oh, Alya.” Lila waved her away. “As if you don’t know already. I practically organize Prince Ali’s charity events, we are fighting the climate change you know and the world hunger, very important stuff.” And then she rambled on.

“So, what do you expect this evening?” Alya continued.

“I adore charity galas, especially _foie de gras_ , caviar and champagne.” Lila gushed. “I mean, it is not like I don’t like oysters, you know.” She gave a knowing look to the camera. Nino facepalmed. Adrien and his bodyguard released similar grunts.

Alya tried to involve Adrien into the conversation.

“I don’t like caviar and champagne, I prefer pastries from my friend’s bakery and fruit juice.” Adrien grinned. “Besides, this is a charity event for a local community centre, the food for the party is donated.” He stressed the last word.

“Yes, of course, it would be ridiculous to spend money on such extravagant foods.” Alya concluded. She took it as a warning, it was the only logical conclusion.

“But your father placed a donation.” Lila smirked. It was her who asked to make it big, ir she was not wearing Gabriel evening gown, then he might as well spend the money. She wanted to be treated as a true star, beside Adrien of course.

There was a moment of awkward silence that Alya saved by changing the subject.

“Oh, I’m sure you are used to charity events by now, can you tell us more about what can we expect there?” Alya inquired. The question was placed in such a way that both Adrien and Lila could answer, but it was Lila who took the stage. So Lila continued to ramble about her accomplishments.

Finally they reached the place. Adrien was not sure for how long he was going to be able to listen to that liar. He only hoped that the people watching the live stream had half a brain cell needed to see the obvious.

Adrien got our from the car and opened the door for Lila.

She looked around.

There was no red carpet.

There were no journalists with flashing cameras shouting questions.

Adrien grinned at a plain entrance to a plain building with only a sign at the door stating what it was. Lila got out from the car and muttered something about this being the wrong address and asked for the press and the cameras.

“Oh, I know how much you like attention and spotlight, but that is why I got Alya for you here.” The boy grinned. He winked at Alya and saw that both the journalist and her boyfriend had smug expressions on their faces.

His bodyguard grunted and opened the trunk of the car. Of course, there were things to carry inside.

The boy turned to the camera and finally announced the address of the community centre. He did not do it before they arrived but she surely announced it then, once they were on the spot. He wanted his fans to know where he was and what kind of an event this was.

Gorilla carried one huge box inside.

“Nino, would it be okay if Alya held the camera stick just for a moment for the two of us to take the donations inside?” Adrien proposed. The boxes in the trunk looked as a nice excuse to avoid Lila for a moment. He hoped his father would not mind him helping out, it was a charity event after all.

Alya quickly took the stick and the boys proceeded to carry the next item together.

Lila did not know what to make of the whole thing. She was disappointed, to say the least. She expected to be lead down a red carped by Adrien in a suit, not to stand in high heels while her date and his best bro carried a box into an obscure building.

But she schooled herself and smiled to the camera. She invented a story about how she single handedly packed and carried boxes for some charity but now she had such a bad arthritis in her wrist that she could not possibly do anything to help.

Soon Luka got out from the building together with Adrien, Nino and Gorilla.

“Marinette and Hannah are not yet here.” Luka mentioned offhandedly.

“Yes, they had a session in the library after classes.” Adrien replied with a knowing look. He made sure Luka understood, it was obviously a continuation of a conversation they had yesterday.

“I already brought the pastries from the bakery.” Luka replied. “Her parents really made a lot of extra today to make sure there was enough for the party.” Then Luka bothered to speak to Alya and the camera about nice bakery that donated pastries for the evening.

“Marinette and Hannah? What are they doing here on our date?” Lila gasped. What kind of a trick had this boy pulled? “I am going to call Gabriel. This is not a charity gala!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the event is only just beginning.


	57. Boxes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is some work to do before the party can start.  
> Adrien just loves any excuse not to be near his date.  
> Alya the story hunter.  
> Marinette and Hannah make an entrance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should have posted this last night, sorry.

Boxes

Adrien did not want Lila to call on his father. He hoped that his father and Nathalie were too busy (as usual) to actually search and watch the live stream. Because he was not the perfect date his father wanted the boy to be. He gushed about school and friends for a reason, his father can’t take that away from him that easily any more.

“Oh, this is the party I wanted to go to this Friday. Father approved. It is in community centre where Hannah goes, all my friends and the whole school should be here, aren’t you happy about that?” Adrien winked. A boy could take a girl on a date to an event where the whole school was going.

“Oh yes, very excited.” Lila squealed but her eyes were shooting daggers. And her posture was defensive at first, before she schooled herself, waved to the camera and grinned. She continued to chat with Alya and the camera.

“I am really excited about being able to help the local community.” Adrien smiled brightly to the camera and went on about his business to the back of the car. The boys and Gorilla emptied the trunk and carried the boxes inside. Alya filmed her boyfriend proudly.

“Come on.” Nino motioned with his head for the girls to follow. It was the least romantic way to invite two girlfriends to enter a building where a party was held, but he did not care. He knew that Alya was not going to complain about that. Not tonight.

“Yes, please, come in.” Adrien added with his best model smile and looked towards the box in his arms apologetically. At least he managed that much. He did not want to be rude and dumping his date, he was just busy helping out. And she bragged about doing that on the way.

Lila struggled in her high heels while she walked across the pavement but she managed without grabbing onto Alya for support. She practised all around her flat, but it was not the same as walking outside. And she expected to be able to hold on to Adrien for that, or hang on, whatever.

The lobby was already full of boxes that were getting opened, labelled and moved into storage by several volunteers in same t-shirts. Adrien thanked his bodyguard and the man left to find a proper parking space for the car.

Luka offered help with carrying and sorting out so the boys stayed in the entrance lobby while the girls proceeded to the reception room. Adrien smiled sheepishly back at Lila who shot another glare at the boy. She was not happy and he could tell. At least he was away from her for now.

The reception room looked like a really large classroom. Actually, when one looked more carefully it was a really large classroom, but not the way they were used to, there were no stairs, everything was on one flat level and the desks and chairs were simply moved to the sides.

“Oh, they got cookies from the Dupain Cheng bakery.” Alya squealed when she saw the boxes on tables made from classroom desks covered by simple table cloths.

Lila could not help herself but scowl.

Alya noticed.

“Oh, Lila, I’m really sorry you got so disappointed, I know you are used to far more glamorous events.” Alya said sympathetically.

“Actually, I am really glad I could support local small business who are trying out.” Lila assumed her false sweetness and talked about the bakery (in not nice ways). “Even though their daughter had been nothing but mean to me, I’m still supporting her parents. Maybe that would teach her to be nice.”

“But this food was donated … “ Alya stuttered out, there was no way that takiing a donation from someone was supporting their business, unless you count what Alya was doing as a commercial.

“Oh guests.” A lady at the door exclaimed, it was the librarian from their school. “I’m so glad you are here. We have such fine foods this time, these are donations from the best bakery in Paris. I’m so glad they support our efforts here.”

Then the woman rambled about how they organize schooling and extracurricular activities for kids and adults who can not afford it elsewhere, such as refugees, but they also have lessons for sensory impaired, Down syndrome kids and offer psychological support.

Alya was following the librarian back to the lobby where she also filmed the boys who helped in opening, sorting out and carrying boxes around. If she was live streaming, she might as well cover some action and advertise the charity.

Lila stayed in the reception room and glared around. She was not alone, but she also did not know anyone who was already there. She glared at the boxes with food and wished she was alone to spoil the food somehow.

But then her attention was back at the people present. She walked over to them and introduced herself. If she was good at anything, she was good at persuading people to take her side. So she began her tale about herself, charities and famous people.

Down in the lobby, the guys were busy but quick. It was important to put away the donated goods to be properly labelled and distributed later and they were directed with rather experienced charity workers who could not carry much.

“Oh, dude, is this yours?” Nino gasped at the content of one box.

“Not any more.” Adrien grinned.

“Take that to the gaming room.” One of the volunteers in the same t-shirts offered as she quickly labelled the items, took photos and scans with the instruments she carried.

Alya filmed her boyfriend and Adrien how they carried a heavy box away to the other side of the corridor while the librarian explained the activities done in the centre and which volunteers they needed.

“We mostly need French spoken tutors, anyone with a few hours per week of spare time can volunteer.” She grinned to the camera and invited people to join in their efforts. It was obvious that the woman did not spend much time in front of a camera.

“Oh these will be excellent.” The woman exclaimed when she saw a box opened. It was full of books. Her attention was again at something else. Alya giggled. This was excellent, she had a story about a charity and she felt she was doing the right thing.

The boys were back amazingly quickly and eager to take on more boxes. There was this positive vibe from all the volunteers there who were grateful for their help and they felt like heroes even without the suits on.

“Please take this to the library, I will label them and sort them out later.” The librarian instructed the boys. This time Alya and the librarian lead the way to a small library on the premisses. The woman talked the whole way and Alya was extremely pleased.

When they returned to the lobby, more boxes appeared because more of the guests have arrived and started bringing things.

“It is a good thing you guys are helping us out, we got much more than the last time.” One of the volunteers smiled.

“I think the guys earned a prize each.” Another one piped in ans she directed where something should be put. But there was no time for the prize yet.

A box tried to enter the building.

Then there was a very familiar squeak and a groan.

Then two boxes collided in the entrance because both of them tried to enter the building.

Adrien recognized both pairs of legs and feet below those boxes and smiled.

Alya was filming, of course, while the volunteers provided the background explanations of the whole process.

“Marinette, Hannah, let me help you!” Adrien ran down the stairs to the entrance and grabbed one box.

“Ugh, this is heavy.” He gasped, slightly surprised at first with the weight he took on his hands. But it was not so heavy, he easily walked up the stairs with the box on his arms while Nino took the box from the other girl.

“Adrien!? Nino?” Marinette squealed. She was completely red in the face, but that must have been from the physical exhaustion from carrying a heavy box around Paris.

“Hi guys.” Hannah panted and leaned her hands on her knees for a moment. Then she waved her arms as if she was flying. “I feel like I could fly.”

“Yeah, that stuff was … heavier than expected.” Marinette admitted to the girl.

“I wish you told me you had so many things to carry, I would have sent my driver to fetch you.” Adrien grinned.

Marinette blushed.

“Those are art supplies.” Hannah explained between two heavy breaths.

“Oh, you know where to take those, the art teacher is not yet here.” The librarian instructed.

Hannah went to grab one box, but Luka was faster. Adrien took the other one.

“Come on, show us where to go.” Luka called for Hannah.

“Of course.” Hannah smiled. “Let’s go.” She pulled Marinette along. “I’ll show you.”

Lila needed some time to calm down. This was a disaster. There was no gala, the only camera was from Alya, there were no famous people, and her whole school was going to be there, Marinette and Hannah included.

Then a wicked grin formed on her face. Of course. This was an excellent opportunity, she was going to cling onto Adrien as a date should and make Marinette sad and miserable. And she was going to find a way to make Hannah miserable too. That might be even easier task with all the secrets to spill.

The room was filling with people and Lila just had to introduce herself to everyone. Alya was back, but she only filmed from afar. Lila never missed to introduce herself as the date of Adrien Agreste and talk about the charities she worked for. Alya kept her distance. She was busy making sure that her live stream was going and her thoughts were a whirlwind that only kept spinning.

Lila was sticking out from the crowd in her glossy green dress. It did bring out her eyes and she really looked like a star in those heels and a wide skirt. Her legs really stood out and the heels increased her height nicely. Lila had this air of being above it all, above them all, and she spoke about celebrities and fancy parties, fancier that this one she was just attending.

Finally, her classmates appeared at the reception room. Their arrival was slightly postponed as each of them helped out at least a little bit before they came in into the room. Marinette and Hannah entered the room and Alya greeted them warmly. Lila was too busy talking to really notice.

Alya was not sure what to make of it all, her brain was already overwhelmed with conflicting information. On one hand, she had what Chat Noir had said, on another hand she had all those tales Lila have just spoken on her live stream.

Finally, Luka, Adrien and Nino arrived to the reception room, and the last boy took the stick away from his girlfriend ready to resume his role of the camera man. They discussed what they did in the last fifteen minutes with Adrien who praised everyone who joined in on the efforts.

Adrien kept talking with Alya and showed absolutely no intention in joining his date. He pretended to be busy and advertized the charity to the best of his abilities as well as his fathers financial contribution to the cause.

Lila was already surrounded by a group of people who listened to her tall tales when she noticed Adrien entered the room. She expected the boy to appear at her side, but it was not happening. Well, he was busy talking to the camera, she noticed that much, but his place was by her, his date!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The party is starting.  
> And everyone is invited.


	58. Fan Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wayhem and the fans can't ignore the event.  
> Hannah get scolded by her family.  
> Lila in action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might be feeling little sick after reading this part. I know I was ...

Fan club

Aside from anything related to Adrien Agreste, Wayhem was subscribed to announcements and live stream from the Ladyblog. When he saw it was Adrien and not an akuma attack, he was excited, well excited was an understatement, he was fanboy over the top excited about that. He followed each word spoken religiously. Adrien was going to a charity event. Everyone was invited. He quickly assembled a donation from some cash and old books, school stuff and games. He was ready. He only needed to know where to go.

But then he saw that Adrien had a date, well that was understandable, but Adrien was obviously not excited about it. The model kept rambling about meeting his nice friends and praised each and every one of them. Wayhem felt humbled, each of Adrien’s friends seemed exceptional.

The fanboy was, of course, aware of the existence of the new muse of Gabriel Agreste. He did search the internet for the girl who modelled with his idol and all he found were few pieces on the Ladyblog and her interview where she claimed she was Ladybug’s best friend.

Wayhem looked at the livestream expectantly. and then he saw the girl. She wore a big flashy dress while his idol was in his plain daily clothes. She frowned and criticised the clothing, she did not look even pleased, let alone over the top exhilarated about going on a date with Adrien Agreste, as anyone should be, according to Wayhem.

Then she started to praise herself and talk about charities. Wayhem needed to know all about the girl who was going on a date with Adrien Agreste. She sounded so cool, too good to be true. He took out his phone and searched the internet for the charities.

He wanted more information, he wanted to know, so he could go there and start a conversation, it was a must. But again there was no information on the web pages of the charities, save a few interviews the girl did for the Ladyblog.

He did not like the girl that much, that girl did not deserve a date with his idol with the way she treated him. It was easy to find something wrong about her. And Wayhem was really glad he could list one thing after another.

Wayhem saw the address of the community centre that hosted the charity and was on his way, but he never switched off the live stream. He was in the metro, other commuters peeked at his screen over his shoulder.

‘Adrien Agreste is on a charity event and everyone is invited’ was the buzz word.

They watched how Lila praised herself for her charity work and then Adrien fans watched with disgust how Adrien helped out and carried boxes around while his date paraded in a dress and heels and whined about caviar and champagne.

“What kind of events does she go to?”

“She spent more on that dress than on a donation, for sure.”

“That’s a Gabriel dress, she got it for free as his muse.”

“It was Gabriel who donated anyway.”

“Look at Adrien he is so strong.”

“He is so kind.”

“He is helping out in the community centre, I should do it too.”

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

There were screenshots, links and comments shared on the social media.

Hannah was happy to see her family members enter the room, until she noticed serious expressions on the faces of her parents. They walked over determinedly. The way they looked at her, the way they held themselves meant only one thing, she was guilty for something.

Thoughts were going through her head in slow motion. She knew she was guilty for something. But what it was? She was late for class in the morning, not much but late, she served her sentence in the library and asked her parents to pick up her brothers from school. It had to be that, of course.

Lila finally had enough, if Adrien was not coming over to her, she was going to walk over to him. Besides, he was talking to Alya and her camera, that was the only media outlet present so far and she needed her spotlight, as Gabriel’s muse of course, not for herself. She smiled slyly.

Marinette noticed concern on Hannah’s face and the way her parents approached. She was going to stand by her friend because Adrien was in the safe hands of Alya, Nino and Luka, Lila looked busy telling tales, and her young friend was obviously in trouble.

Adrien winced the moment Lila wrapped her hands around his arm. He knew that sleazy touch, it sent unpleasant shivers down his spine and he needed a moment to school himself and smile to the camera. Anyone who watched must have noticed but he was going to play it off as surprise to his father if he ever bothered to ask about it.

After that moment, Wayhem and the first and most eager group of Adrien fans burst in. Lila turned Adrien around to face them. They were shouting Adrien’s name and taking photos. Finally, she was having her moment. She just smiled, pretended to be shy about it and clutched onto Adrien.

Marinette was close enough to overhear what Hannah’s parents had to say. They were not shy about it at all.

“You, young lady, went out last night without asking us.” Hannah was scolded by her parents who took turns with each sentence. “You took your brothers with you.” Yes her brothers clearly used their older sister as an excuse for their own deeds. “They played football in the park during an akuma attack instead of being home and writing their homework.” Yup, exactly. “And what were you doing?”

“I helped preparing treats for this party.” Hannah muttered quietly. She thought that that excuse was good enough, she did not lie, she looked at her parents straight in their eyes and hoped for the best. Of course, there were other things she did besides being late for school that morning.

“In someone else’s kitchen! Who cleaned up after you?” Mary, Hannah’s mother, was furious. “You sneaked away to have dinner at someone else’s house. And you did not even sleep at home.” She continued her scolding. “You did not ask our permission for any of that!”

Marinette wanted to step in, but she was not sure what was going on because Hannah was scolded not only in French, but in other languages too. She could only see how Hannah’s face changed with each sentence.

“Your brothers were late for school, their homework unfinished.” Her father shouted. “I had to have meetings with their teachers after school today, that is why we got here late.” The man was never late and he was not used to being bothered with school problems of his children.

Hannah was sinking. Everything was her fault.

“My parents invited them for dinner and a sleep over.” Marinette finally collected courage to sleep because she began to understand what the issue was. She hoped that her explanation was sufficient to make peace and avoid any further punishment for her classmate.

“And we thank you for that.” Hannah’s father actually smiled politely. “There was nothing wrong with that, but our daughter never bothered to ask for our permission, she never bothered to let us know where she was!”

Hannah shuddered.

But there was more than a family drama that unfolded in the same room.

Adrien’s fans were not entirely happy about Lila. There were varying opinions, from gushing about her, over doubts to straight on jealousy. They all had questions, about the dress she was wearing, charities she claimed to work for, why she did not help with the boxes.

Lila had no issues with assuming her role of a story teller. She gushed about her accomplishments, the invented ones anyway. Some fans listened with wide eyes, other took the information on the social media, they were spending their evening with Adrien and his date after all.

But they all still demanded to know more and barraged with questions. And there were questions. Because it was widely known who managed the charities of prince Ali and what problems they tackled. Because everyone knew Jagged Stone never had a kitten.

Alya was barely able to prevent the complete chaos even with the help of Nino. She interviewed fans on the side, one by one, while Nino held the phone above them. It was more like she would put a question and each of them had an answer.

One fan was excited about a muse of Gabriel Agreste dating his son, another thought it was unprofessional, the third exclaimed she would have been a better choice, then a few expressed doubts in a few things Lila had said in the car.

Wayhem sneaked over to Adrien and they first started a friendly conversation. Adrien was glad to see the boy there, Wayhem was delighted to be in the presence of his idol. They talked as friends and exchanged usual stories of what they have been up to since their last conversation.

“Why did you chose her for your date, Adrien?” The boy asked. He could not hide that he was slightly bothered, he did not even know why, he just had this gut feeling that he did not like the girl he never met in person (until then).

“My father chose her for his muse, so I had to.” Adrien replied quietly. He could have invented some little white lie that would have explained it away, but it was not worth the effort. Alya was busy on the other side of Lila. But more fans overheard him.

Wayhem did not look pleased. He always imagined how his idol lived a perfect life, until they actually met, then he finally learned how his idol was not always happy with all aspects of his life, particularly being closed up in his room, but this was just too much to take in.

Kagami entered the hall. She was late, it took time for her to make herself presentable after the fencing, she could not play it off as Adrien, and her mother had a few thigs to say to her daughter. Luka saw her and waved her to come over.

They quickly pushed through the crowd towards Adrien as they remembered their mission to never leave the boy alone with his date. But the boy was hardly alone. A group of fans, Alya and Nino, loud fans, everybody seemed to be there.

Nino stood tall as he tried to follow and film Alya with the phone on a stick, so the boy was helpless to separate his best friend from the girl who latched onto his arm. Then there were fans who wanted a piece of their favourite boy.

Luka looked sheepish, he had just delivered an instrument into the music room and stayed there to talk to a few friends he found there so he forgot about his mission for just a moment. And then he returned to this. It was bound to happen he told himself.

Kagami felt the anger boil inside her. She was late because her mother needed her for a few moments between fencing and the charity event and now Adrien was pulled around by that girl. Oh, how she wanted to lay her hands and weapons on her.

Adrien looked around and scanned the room, he had that unpleasant feeling, he was worried about his fans, about Wayhem, about Marinette and especially about Hannah who was clearly getting scolded by her parents not that far away from him, he could almost hear them.

Principal Damocles stepped in the room.

He was wearing the Owl costume.

Therefore, the Owl stepped in the room.

That did not go unnoticed.

“Huh huh this is the Owl.” The man announced himself.

There was a moment of amused quiet.

Even the Owl was confused.

Well, everyone was, save one person who clearly knew how to drag the attention back to herself.

“Charity work also means one should be extra careful who benefits. There are people who would take advantage of that.” Lila walked over to Hannah, ever so slowly, on her high heels, she held Adrien for support.

“This girl over here lied about her age, citizenship, everything, only to get in this country, to go to my school and to abuse the benefits of this community centre.” Lila stated. She was so sure of herself. She had the data she got through her mother’s account. She could build on that.

“No Lila.” Marinette interrupted. “You are lying again, just like you did to get me expelled. It is just that disease of yours.” She clenched her fists and played her card, she had to protect her young classmate, and the school principal was there to confirm it.

“Oh, Marinette, I’m so sorry. I did that only as a favour for Adrien.” The Lila continued to tell to the camera how Marinette got expelled although the other girl tried to interrupt her. “I only lied about having a disease to get you back to school.”

“Lila stop that, stop it at once.” Adrien asked with a calm and cold tone of a professional assassin.”I asked you nicely to leave them alone, I only accepted to have a photo shoot with you to stop hurting my friends.”

“Your friends?” Lila smiled and covered her face. “Oh, Adrien, you could not seriously consider these two your friends? What would your father think? They cheat, they lie, they hurt people.” She smirked. “Besides, how could you turn down your father’s muse?”

Marinette was going angry, the school principal was confused. He came there to have fun, not to solve problems from his school. She took a few deep breaths to respond to the last lie and trash Lila for what she was.

Hannah was becoming desperate. All her secrets were out in just one sentence. She was going to lose everything she had, everything she worked for in her short life. What was going to happen to her? Everyone looked at her. She thought it was anger, she could feel it.

She took a few steps back towards the window. The room was full of people and it was becoming stuffy and hard to breathe. Her parents gave her betrayed looks. Her brothers were angry. It was all because of her. Everything bad happened because of her.

She saw everyone’s eyes were on her. Marinette and Adrien were still trying to defend her but they were only earning glares from the others, or it looked that way. She was taking steps back to the window, she needed some air, she needed little space.

A violet butterfly fluttered through the window and entered her hair ribbon.

“No” Adrien screamed when he noticed.

Marinette turned and saw the violet glow in the tie that tied Hannah’s messy pony tail on her head.

She jumped to rip the tie away, but it was useless, it was tangled in the hair and the tie was really strong, Marinette searched for scissors in panic.

Lila latched onto Adrien, pulled him back and prevented him to intervene. The boy screamed at her to let him go and shook his arm stronger and stronger to set himself free.

The whole room watched in horror as a violet mask appeared on Hannah’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You knew this had to happen sooner or later.


	59. The Truth Seeker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah becomes an akuma, the Truth Seeker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's see what kind of an akuma would Hannah be, hm ...

The Truth Seeker

There were gasps from the whole room while the violet mask glowed on Hannah’s face.

“Don’t do it daughter.” Hannah’s father called.

“Get a hold of yourself.” Her mother shouted.

“Cool.” Her brothers muttered to each other.

The two boys could barely remember the time of peace, they both started school before the war broke out, but it was so sudden and so overwhelming experience that they barely knew of anything else. Then they moved to Paris that turned to a war zone from time to time, too.

But the akuma battles were far more interesting and Ladybug always turned everything back to normal. They were scared and they disliked Hawk Moth and never wanted the guy to win, but watching this was fun and experiences were familiar. It made them feel less far away from home.

“Listen to me Hannah! Tell him no! Don’t let him rule you!” Marinette pleaded.

“Hannah, please, we all believe in you.” Adrien whisper shouted strained from pulling his arm away from Lila. The girl was practically hanging off from him.

“Nobody could possibly believe her after all her lying and cheating.” Lila shouted.

Hannah stared at Lila, that girl was telling her about lies and cheating?

“Truth Seeker, I give you the power that you can show them the truth and you can make them reveal the truth about themselves. All I ask in return are the Chat Noir ring and Ladybug’s earrings.” Hawk Moth talked in her head.

“No, no, leave me alone.” The girl screamed and tried to determine what to do to set herself free, to find which object was akumatized. But the tie was stuck in her hair and she did not see that. She could not recognize the words Adrien was shouting her.

Marinette was gone. It was time to transform and stop Hawk Moth again, she had to do it quickly, she wanted it done as soon as possible. She was looking for a place to transform in an unfamiliar building full of people.

“If I make Lila reveal the truth about herself, nobody will believe her, Marinette and me would be able to stay in school, nobody would harass my family about the paperwork.” Hannah reasoned and muttered the words to herself.

“I can give that power to you.” Hawk Moth offered without a moment of consideration. Because Lila had a thing or two to say about Gabriel too. But he wanted an akuma with that power.

“I accept.” Hannah sighed and finally relented and accepted Hawk Moth’s power. Her body transformed as it gained superpowers. Her hair stuck in the air like trolls and it shone in all colours of the rainbow. Her clothes were glittering and bright.

Adrien wanted to run away and transform but Lila was clinging onto him and he was almost surrounded by fans. The boy heard clearly what power the Truth Seeker wanted and whom she wanted first. But he did not want to be hit, because he had secrets to keep.

Marinette ran around the building in panic. Each room was occupied, around each corner, there was someone. She finally found an empty room and transformed. She jumped out through the window because she did not want to come back out in the corridor as Ladybug.

Meanwhile, Lila dramatized the situation, she whined and she cried and she demanded Adrien to save her. The boy spent most of the time defending himself from her wandering hands and asked, repeatedly, not to be touched by her.

Ladybug burst through the window just behind the Truth Seeker. She took in the scene quickly. The Truth Seeker was singing merrily and danced around Lila and Adrien while people evacuated the room quickly. The akuma was not even aiming at them, she had one goal only, and that goal held onto Adrien.

The agile akumatized girl quickly jumped on one of the tables. She went after Lila and hit her with a bolt of electricity. Adrien hesitated to protect Lila from the blow, for he had plenty reasons not to do that. Lila tried to use him as a shield and his first instinct as a superhero was to do just that.

But when he failed to reach his staff on his back, he remembered he was still a civilian. At that moment bolt hit Lila. Kagami and Luka have chosen to hide instead to escape. They exchanged a glance. They both would have used Lila as a shield.

“I am the Truth Seeker. What I want from you is the truth. But I will offer you the truth first, so that you know what the truth sounds like. Because some of you obviously lost any idea on what the truth is. If you ever had known.” The akuma spoke solemnly, while her appearance and actions were a complete contrast to her words.

“I am stateless.” She stressed. “I was homeless, I went hungry for days, I stole food to feed my brothers, I helped my parents in whatever hospital facility they were working in. I saw death. My friends died. My friends were executed. My friends were raped.” She continued.

There were gasps from the audience of those few who stayed hidden or did not manage to squeeze out through the door yet. Alya was filming from the corner after she snatched the camera stick from Nino who was pulling her down to remain hidden.

“You expect fancy appetizers and champagne on a simple charity events and you tell me that I abuse the community centre? For used clothes, school stuff, bathroom necessities and painting lessons?” The akuma was giving her speech. Everyone listened struck by the truth.

“Tell me, for which charities you work for.” The Truth Seeker demanded from Lila.

“None” The word escaped her mouth and she covered it with both her hands.

The Truth Seeker initiated another bolt of electricity into Lila. Her hands fell from her mouth.

“And how many children did you save?” She asked again.

“Zero.” Lila answered and tried to hide.

Adrien was free from Lila, but his fans surrounded the boy protectively. Wayhem remembered how his idol was so scared of akuma that the boy pretended to be Adrien on one occasion, when the bodyguard was akumatized into Goruzilla.

The same fans also pushed Lila in front, they wanted to hear this, they wanted to know.

Hannah continued her questions and Lila continued with answers. The only celebrity she ever met was Adrien Agreste. She confirmed threatening Hannah and Marinette. She confirmed she planted the evidence about Marinette and faked her injury.

But between her admissions, she shouted how she abused her mothers privileges and investigated on Hannah and knew that the girl lied about her citizenship. Because at least that accusation was true and Lila was not letting it go.

Ladybug hesitated to jump in and defend Lila. Her reasons were selfish. The Truth Seeker just made Lila admit all the lies. Well, Lila was going to deny anything she spoke under the influence of an akuma. She clutched on her yoyo and followed Truth Seeker and Lila.

“Marinette is so stupidly in love with Adrien that she even followed us to the Agreste Mansion. She is stalking him and meddling, she even followed us here on our date.” Lila shouted without being struck by a light bolt. She wanted Adrien’s fans to find another target so she could escape.

That finally triggered Ladybug to jump in front of Lila in order to protect her, and to shut her up, whatever was feasible, even for a superhero with magical powers of creation. Ladybug wandered if her lucky charm might be a piece of scotch tape to put over Lila’s mouth.

Adrien stiffened. He concluded at first that Lila would stop at nothing to destroy his friendship with Marinette. Instead of a way out, his eyes were now looking for his classmate and friend. But he could not see her, she probably escaped, it was an akuma attack after all.

Then it dawned on him. Was Lila telling the truth? And did everyone else know that? Luka definitely heard that before and was only worried about him. Adrien. And Kagami too. Then he noticed Ladybug, she stood just in front of Lila, but she looked straight at him.

“No.” Ladybug screamed, she wanted to continue and rebuke everything that Lila had said about Marinette, she observed Adrien and how his face had changed as he searched the room for the civilian her. but she had to school herself and not intervene.

Adrien could not help himself but smile. He was smiling at Ladybug, but he also felt warm inside because his friend loved him, he heard that from her as Chat. Wait. He loved Ladybug. Why was that making him happy? And did he hear Plagg snicker from his shirt?

“That is enough.” Ladybug stated, but her voice was trembling. Her Attention was focused on Adrien as she tried to read his reaction to what Lila just revealed about her civilian identity. Oh how she wanted to know how would the boy react. And he was smiling.

Ladybug took one more step back towards Lila to push the girl away and keep her silent. Then the heroine concentrated on the latest Hawk Moth’s creation, she definitely did not want to get hit by the Truth Seeker. At least Lila stopped talking for a moment.

Lila raised her hands, reached over Ladybug’s shoulders and grabbed on Ladybug’s earrings.

The Truth Seeker sent two bolts of lightning towards Ladybug and Lila.

Ladybug dove down to evade the light bolts and rolled under the table and behind the table cloth. But Lila pulled on the earrings with all her strength and had one earring in each hand. She admired her prise while she got hit by another bolt.

The pink light washed over Ladybug’s body while she was rolling to hide underneath the table and the light hid the clothes she was wearing as detransformation took a crucial moment she needed to hide. Nobody was able to recognize her, too busy evading the light bolts or too far.

“Why did you do it?” The Truth Seeker insisted.

“Oh, I just wanted to be the most popular girl.” Lila smiled slyly. “Having to change schools has detrimental effect on one’s popularity. I knew that Marinette was popular for her connections and help she provided, so I knew what I needed to say.”

Marinette discovered she was not Ladybug any more, she observed her arms, she felt her ears, and took in her surroundings where she was hiding under the table. Nobody was there. She contemplated jumping back out at Lila to get her earrings back.

But jumping straight out would reveal her identity. One light bolt hit the wall behind the table and it cracked, the crack was sufficiently wide for a person to go through. Marinette saw a way out, she could escape and go home to fetch more miraculous. So she did.

“Yes I have the Ladybug’s earrings yes” Lila cheered and smiled wickedly at the contents of her hands once she answered the question. Alya practically screamed while Nino held his hand over her mouth not to give away their hiding spot.

She did not even notice Tikki who kept silent, floated away quickly and phased through a wall, but not before she glanced towards Adrien. The boy saw her, the boy noticed her and followed her with worried eyes as if he wanted a clue on what to do.

The remaining Adrien fans escaped the room. Wayhem tried to pull his idol out and go to safety, but the model boy stayed firm in his spot. He was not held by Lila any more, she did not latch onto him, she was too busy frowning at the plain looking earrings in her hand.

Until then, Kagami and Luka were hiding behind another table. They looked at each other in horror. What was going to happen next? They did not have their miraculous, but they determinedly jumped out and went after Lila, they were going to retrieve those earrings.

Adrien was finally free from Lila and his fans, free to escape, hide and transform. But all he wanted then was to jump back onto the girl who used to latch on him and rip those earrings from her hands. But akuma was faster, much faster and jumped in between.

The boy had a much better chance of grabbing on those earrings if he transformed into a superhero. He wanted to run and hide below the same table where he saw Ladybug rolled under to hide. But then he might compromise her identity. And it was far. The door was much closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although Lila already revealed her true self, let the akuma finish the job for anyone who had any doubts.  
> On the other hand, Lila would probably lie herself out of this one, because she was hit by an akuma.


	60. A Wish of my Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle with the Truth Seeker continues ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Robostus (akumatized Markov).

A wish of my own

Lila had snatched the earrings off Ladybug, Adrien was not able decide if he wanted to stay and fight Lila for the earrings as a civilian or run away and transform, Kagami and Luka got out from their hiding spot and went after Lila who discarded her heels to be able to run away.

“Why do you want Ladybug’s earrings and Chat Noir’s ring” The Truth Seeker asked Hawk Moth as she observed Lila and walked after the girl who was removing her own earrings to replace them with a miraculous. Kagami and Luka were after her and it did not go as easy as she expected.

“To make a wish.” The villain replied. Hawk Moth hesitated to demand from the akuma to retrieve the earrings from Lila. But then he concluded it was safer to trust the earrings with an akuma he could control. He did not trust Lila that much.

“You just want to make a wish? Like when blowing candles on a cake?” The Truth Seeker cooed.

“Yes, but the wish made with the miraculous actually comes true.” Hawk Moth grinned. “Now get those earrings for me.” He ordered.

“Of course, Hawk Moth.” The Truth Seeker replied obediently but had an idea of her own. Akuma smiled and went after Lila. She was chasing after a civilian who held the Ladybug’s earrings. That was an easy prey to catch.

Adrien jumped after Lila, he was ready to take the earrings. But he only collided into Luka and they both slammed into Lila so all three of them collapsed on top of the akuma. All of them wanted to take those earrings away from Lila.

Distracted, Adrien got back on his feet and noticed Alya was filming from the corner while Nino was trying to pull her out. Bot looked seriously distraught by what they had just seen, Alya even muttered some comments for the audience watching the live streaming.

Kagami and Luka also got back on their feet, but they were focused on getting Lila who was chased by the akuma too. Finally, they took a chance to ‘regroup’ and make a plan, so they ducked down and observed the situation while hidden behind a table on the other side of the room.

Adrien was tempted to join them for a precious moment, but what he really needed was to run away and transform. He remembered how Tikki phased out from the room. The tiny goddess of creation was probably going as far as she could.

He felt Plagg in his pocket who offered the only advice. ‘Run away.’

“Ladybug earrings, they are mine.” Lila exclaimed as she tried to put one on her earlobe.

“Go fetch the earrings.” Hawk Moth instructed his akuma with annoyance in his voice. Why was that girl hesitating? He needed more obedient akumas. The Truth Seeker finally got back on her feet and went after Lila.

Adrien made a decision to listen to Plagg and escaped the room. On his way out, he and glanced towards horrified Alya and Nino. He needed to transform really quickly and come back to retrieve his lady’s earrings while Lila still had them.

“No, I’m not giving you the earrings, they are mine, I got them, not you, stupid akuma.” Lila shouted as she attached one earring onto her hear and was trying to attach the other. She had no idea about how to transform, but she did not bother to think about such trivialities.

Adrien was running. The hallways were full of people. The rooms were full of people. Everywhere he went, there were people and people and even more people. Adrien slipped into the basement and transformed. The basement had a window just below the ceiling and Chat got through.

There were people in the street outside and they quickly directed him which window to go to. He vaulted back up. Chat Noir landed just outside the window and carefully observed the scene inside. Lila and the Truth Seeker were facing each other.

“Give them back to me you stupid akuma!” Lila was screaming. But Truth Seeker firmly held her fist shut.

“I have the earrings.” The akuma spoke bluntly as if she was surprised by the fact.

Then Chat noticed Luka and Kagami, who were hiding nearby and they motioned for the hero to listen.

“Lila was the one who stole the earrings from Ladybug.” Luka whispered to Chat.

“Did anyone see her identity?” Chat inquired.

“Nobody.” Kagami replied determinedly. “We were rather close when it happened.”

“Good.” Chat replied through his teeth.

“Truth Seeker has the earrings now.” Kagami added.

“She needed considerable effort even with the aid of magic powers to get them from Lila.” Luka added.

Chat walked over to the akuma rather casually. Truth Seeker looked rather overwhelmed by having the earrings, the mask on her face glowed violet as she was listening to the instructions and her own thoughts.

“Chat Noir!” Lila exclaimed. “Oh, thank god, please help me. This akuma made me say awful things about myself and she took the Ladybug’s earrings. She has them, right there in her hand. Please take them and give them to me, I will save them for her, you know.”

Chat was well aware that Alya was still in the room, probably still hidden behind the same desk where Nino pulled her to hide. And she was streaming the akuma attack live on her blog. He smirked. But he needed those earrings back and they were with the akuma now.

“Truth Seeker was barely able to scratch the surface of your lies, Lila.” Chat brushed her off.

“No, no, you have to believe me, she even hurt me, you see.” She sneaked over and grabbed his hand. His ring bearing hand. Chat fisted it instantly and did not mind at all that his claws scratched her.

“Chat, you hurt me!” She whined. “Heroes are supposed to protect the civilians!” But she was trying to yank his fist open. Chat rolled his eyes. He was not able to get rid of that girl clinging onto his arm even when he was transformed.

“Hannah” Chat called to the akuma.

“I am Truth Seeker now.” The akuma replied calmly.

Chat was ready to dodge any light bolt she threw his way, but the violet mask on her face kept glowing. Hawk Moth was obviously full of instructions and the akuma was overwhelmed. Or maybe just had some plans of her own.

“Get his ring.” Hawk Moth shouted to the akuma.

The akuma jumped after Chat. He evaded the blow but he also did not manage to grab her wrist nor to get the earrings. Lila grabbed his wrist again, and Chat yanked his hand back. The force threw Lila on the floor and she cling onto him to get back on her feet.

“Oh, Chat Noir, you have to save me, please.” Lila pretended to be scared while her hands were going for his ring. If she did not have the Ladybug earrings, she might at least take the ring. She sneaked up to Ladybug just minutes before.

“You are not getting my ring Lila.” Chat spat back at her. He wanted the world to know what she was after even though his attention was on the akuma before him who was just starting to speak.

“No, she is not getting your ring. I am. And I am making a wish of my own. I want my country back.” The akuma was … crying? And the voice of the akuma sounded like begging. The violet mask on her face was burning.

Hawk Moth was not pleased, but he was also not giving up on the akuma that held Ladybug’s earrings. He contemplated if leaving them with Lila was a better choice, than this stupid akuma who was going to use them for her own selfish reasons.

“That is a wrong thing to do Hannah.” Chat replied while he kept his fist firmly closed so that Lila could not pry his ring off. If he only accidentally called for his cataclysm, his problems would have been solved. But then Ladybug would call for her cure and Lila would be back.

Therefore, there was no use, he needed his power to fight off the akuma, to get the earrings and return them to his lady, somehow. He did not need to be on a timer, he had more pressing matters. But the feeling of destroying Lila, at least temporarily, was so tempting.

“If you wish for your country back, some other country would be destroyed, it might even be France.” Chat continued to talk to the Truth Seeker. He felt he was reaching to the girl and that she was fighting Hawk Moth.

“So what, it would not be my country.” The Truth Seeker retorted. But her tone revealed she did not really mean it, she cared, she looked away. The violet mask continued to glow and she pressed both of her fists onto her head.

“That is a wrong thing to say, that is selfish, and you are not like that Hannah.” Chat replied calmly with a gentle smile on his face. He might wish the same wish for her if the price was not so unacceptable.

“But maybe it doesn’t have to be.” The akuma replied. “Maybe I can just get my country back?” She spoke hopefully. She never wanted to destroy another country, just to get her old life back, her friends and her home town.

“Hannah, that is not possible.” Chat spoke softly. The akuma did not attack. She looked at the hero. Chat kept his distance because she might attack if he got too close, but then he took one more cautious step towards her. He held his hand out towards her.

“Please give me the earrings, I will return them to Ladybug, somehow.” Chat promised.

A violet mask appeared on akuma’s face. Hawk Moth was having words with the akuma. What was that girl thinking of defying him and taking the jewels to make a wish of her own?

Kagami and Luka observed the scene from their hiding place. Luka peeked on one side, between the table and the door, while Kagami was at the other end and observed the scene through a gap. A small Multimouse appeared next to Kagami and offered an octahedral box.

“Kagami, I am Multimouse, Ladybug sent me.” The tiny hero explained and handed over the jewel. Kagami put on the choker without hesitation, thanked Multimouse for trusting her and bringing her the jewel and promised to return it after the battle.

Another Multimouse was on the other side of the two teenagers and handed over the octahedral box to Luka.

“Hi Luka, Ladybug sent this for you. I am Multimouse.” She smiled.

“Are you some magic delivery guy? I mean, girl?” He smiled and put on the bracelet before he crawled away through the door to find a place to transform.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, a tiny Multimouse approached Max and asked to be taken away to hiding.

Kim had to abandon Ondine for a moment because a tiny Multimouse jumped onto his shoulder and told him to do so.

Each of the four heroes transformed and took their tiny Multimouse with them.

And each was warned that Hawk Moth and Mayura might join in on the attack.

The akuma held on the earrings in her hand and watched Chat Noir.

“I will return them to you only if you give me your ring for a minute. I just want to make one wish, I want back my country, my home, my friends and all those people who died or got mutilated to be alive and healthy again. This is what I want Chat Noir. Please give me your ring, I will give it all back to you after I make my wish.” The akuma pleaded while she held her fists close to her head and the violet mask glowed.

“You want to restore the country you love, but another country will be destroyed in its place and I’m sure you already like France.” Chat continued. “You don’t want all your new friends to loose the country they live in, don’t you?”

Akuma shook her head. No, she did not want her new friends to go through the same thing she was through, she did not want that to anybody.

“He’s right!” A voice came from the window.

It was Hawk Moth.

Mayura was on the widow on the other side.

Kagami transformed in her hiding place under the table and peeked through an opening to estimate who to strike first. She needed a target and here she had four, Lila included. The girl had to rip away her eyes from the primary target (Lila) and focus on the akuma, Hawk Moth and Mayura.

Chat froze in place for a moment, he was alone against an akuma, two more supervillains (not to mention Lila) and he knew his lady lost her earrings. He might still escape, but the akuma was his friend and she held onto Ladybug’s earrings.

“Give the earrings to me and go for his ring.” Hawk Moth ordered to the Truth Seeker and held out his hand waiting for the akuma to deliver obediently. Mayura stood on the other side. Both villains observed the scene and felt superior to the single remaining hero.

“No, I’m making my wish.” The Truth Seeker shouted, clenched the fist that held the earrings and threw herself at Chat Noir. She wanted that ring, she needed it. Hawk Moth was telling her to go for the ring so she did what she was ordered, technically.

Chat Noir fisted his hand and waited for the Truth Seeker to slam into him, he was taking the akuma and the earrings with him. Lila was sneaking her hands around both the hero from the other side. She wanted a miraculous and this was her chance.

Hawk Moth pulled back his violet butterfly from the tie on the hair of the Truth Seeker and she detrainsformed back into a plain girl.

Hannah landed on Chat Noir, dazed and confused and unsure what had just happened.

The violet butterfly fluttered in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point of the story it is hard to stop a chapter without making it a cliffhanger.


	61. Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat takes Hannah to safety. They actually talk a lot.  
> And it is easy to guess what Lila is up to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Hannah just wanted to use the earrings and the ring for 'selfish' reasons so Chat is not going to propose for her to be a substitute Ladybug.

Escape

Chat caught Hannah and clearly heard Alya gasped in the corner. She was still filming. But nobody else was aware of her presence. One of his problems got solved by itself, there was no akuma to fight at the moment. Just a girl in his arms, who was not fighting him.

Hawk Moth grinned wickedly. This was going to be easy. One superhero, confused civilian on his arms and both miraculous he desired all in one. He felt like he already won. He spared the time to look at Mayura and exchange a knowing glance.

Chat Noir held onto the girl in his arms as if she was the most precious cargo and jumped to the other side of the room to take her as far as he could from Lila as well as the other two supervillains in the room. Hawk Moth and Mayura changed positions to get closer.

Ryuko got out from her hiding spot and went after Hawk Moth and Mayura. Her Multimouse on he shoulder held to her hair. Ryuko proved to be a distraction, Hawk Moth fought her and Mayura launched her fan at them. At least they have given Chat precious moments to escape.

“You were akumatized, you have Ladybug’s earrings in your hand.” Chat explained to Hannah quickly as he made sure she was at a safe distance from Lila and the other two villains. He grabbed his baton with the other hand.

Hannah opened the palm of her hand and was surprised by what she found there.

“Oh no!” She whispered. “Can you return them to her?” She offered her hand. But when Chat went after them she squeezed it back into a fist because they were under an attack again. Hawk Moth jumped from one side, Mayura jumped from the other.

Chat Noir did not waste a single moment, he grabbed Hannah around her waist and smashed through the window in the middle. He surprised everyone with the move, perhaps even himself. The girl in his arms crushed her body into him to protect herself from shattered glass.

The two villains crashed into each other and needed a moment to follow their prey. Lila screamed. And that moment was just enough for the black clad superhero to disappear from view. The two villains jumped out from the window quickly and went to the roof to spot the hero.

“Oh, no you won’t.” Lila sneered after she saw Chat vault through the window with the girl who held the earrings. Lila jumped and caught the violet butterfly and then put the butterfly into a pendant around her neck.

She transformed into a Volpina again.

Alya felt her hand was shaking. It could have been from holding the phone and streaming. But the battle did not last for so long, and Nino was helping out just before. That was it, she was getting that girl, wrapping her up in a punch bag and then Nora was going to train her using that bag.

Chat Noir hid behind a chimney with Hannah and looked back to the room he just left and saw Lila transform into Volpina. He landed roughly onto a rooftop on the other side so he checked Hannah for injuries and quickly and then continued to run and find a safe place for her.

“What was I doing while I was an akuma?” Hannah asked a little scared of what was she going to get as a response. But everything she remembered from before she became an akuma was so scary that this was probably not much worse.

“You made Lila admit the truth.” Chat smirked. He could not even hold it against her. Even if she was not akumatized. He could feel Hannah reacted to those words. The girl was relieved. This was probably not the time nor the place to ask for more details about that.

“And the earrings?” She asked rather confused. Because she did hold them in the palm of her hand. That meant that she got them somehow, that she hurt Ladybug in the process, took the powers from her and possibly disclosed her identity.

“Lila ripped them off Ladybug’s ears.” Chat hissed. Angry shivers passed down his body and he tensed up as if he was watching the event unfold again. Hannah hissed because he probably held her too tightly. “You took them form her.” He smiled at the girl.

Hannah observed her clenched fist that held the earrings. Yeah, there was still one more question to ask, one more answer to hear, how she failed and succumbed to the evil.

“And I was going to bring them to Hawk Moth?” Her voice trembled. She needed a confirmation, she needed to know and then she was going to deal with it. Yes, people became akuma and they did what Hawk Moth told them to. None of them was happy about that.

“Nope, you wanted to make a wish of your own.” Chat answered carefully. “You wanted your country back.” He clarified, he only wished he was able to observe her reaction carefully, but he had to keep watch for the villains who were searching for the both of them.

“Of course.” She muttered. She knew how much she wanted that. She even asked Ladybug and Chat Noir about that and they did explain it away. Obviously, she did not discard the idea completely if she wanted that as an akuma.

“But that is not possible without destroying some other country.” Char replied gently. He could have just taken the earrings away by force, but he wanted her to understand that it could not have been done.

“Can I make a wish at least to go to school here? To stay in France and to go to school? To live in peace? To have a normal life?” She begged. Chat let her stand on the roof tiles to be able to look at her and talk to her.

“You can have your home here Hannah, I will help you, I know Ladybug will help you, you can stay here, with us.” Chat spoke softly. Hannah stared at the earrings in her hand still unsure on what to do, her decision probably made already, but she had to let go of the idea.

“That is not the way, Hannah.” Chat whispered and grabbed her to find a better hiding spot. “Besides, you probably ensured that already.” He added while he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he found a secluded hiding spot.

When they finally stopped, Hannah returned the earrings while tears streamed down her face.

“Thank you Hannah. Ladybug and me will do anything in our power to keep you and your family in Paris and get you back to school.” Chat hugged the girl who was still crying her eyes out.

Then he put the earrings in his pocket, he looked around, took the girl and vaulted away, he was reluctant to leave her alone, but he also needed to come back and fight the villains. He was hiding behind a chimney and observed the same building again.

Hawk Moth and Mayura were gone from the building, they were out on the rooftops searching for the black cat and Chat smirked at outsmarting them. He even dared to hope that they had given up the chase.

He could clearly see several heroes and the new akuma on a nearby rooftop. Volpina was producing her doubles and the heroes were fighting illusions, but there were four heroes against one akuma. Chat had to find Ladybug or transform to be Mister Bug to cleanse the butterfly.

“A new akuma.” Hannah whispered quietly. “My parents.” She added and pointed to a window.

Chat let her stay safely hidden in an alley below. She was not to be found by anybody. Because Hawk Moth and Mayura might still be around to take her.

He vaulted up to a rooftop where he noticed King Monkey and Ryuko fight Volpina, the image dissolved into smoke. Peagasus was on the other side of the rooftop and attacked the illusions that were going after him.

But Chat was looking for the fourth hero, he needed to know if his power was activated. He needed to know if Viperion was active and if he started his second chance, because he was not on that rooftop and fighting. But he could not see the hero anywhere.

Viperion landed quietly on the rooftop beside Chat Noir and sneaked up on the other hero. Multimouse was perched on Viperion’s shoulder and kept quiet as both heroes observed the surrounding rooftops for danger.

“Hi Chat.” The Multimouse on Viperion’s shoulder greeted quietly not to give away their hiding spot. She just made the hero look for Chat and Hannah because the two of them had Ladybug’s earrings.

“Hi Multimouse.” He greeted with the warmest of smiles. Of course Ladybug went to her. She saved them from the Kwamibuster. Finally, his lady listened to his suggestion and gave the mouse miraculous to Marinette again.

But both Viperion and Multimouse were looking around as if they were searching for something, or somebody. Chat smirked, oh he had an idea for who and what they were looking for. He had just hidden her in an alley a few buildings away.

“What have you done with Hannah?” Multimouse inquired. She knew from the Multimouse that stayed with Ryuko everything that happened. “And the earrings.” She continued quietly as she approached the subject of her interest. She needed those earrings.

“She is hidden, the earrings are here.” He patted his pocket and winked. She stared at the zip on the pocket. She could ask Chat to give her the earrings, but then she just might be too close to revealing her identity to him. She needed a plan for that and something else to deal with in the meantime.

“There are more Volpina, not only on that building but even around Paris. We have to find the right one.” Multimouse reported. Her serious tone reminded Chat of the tone Ladybug used with him sometimes and he looked at Multimouse the same way he sometimes looked at his lady.

“How will we know which one is real?” Viperion asked while he observed the battle. Apparently none of the Volpina there were real, each of them dissolved in a puff of smoke as soon as a hero stroke them.

“She wants Ladybug’s earrings and Chat’s ring.” Multimouse replied. “She will go after you and Hannah.” She added and confirmed what Viperion had suspected. “Hawk Moth and Mayura are probably still around too.”

“She thinks Hannah has the earrings.” Viperion answered. “And if Volpina finds Hannah, the fact that she doesn’t have the earrings will not stop that vixen from hurting the girl.” He had witnessed enough for the evening and he still had a battle to face.

“What if I just jump out to taunt the akuma and announce that it is me who actually has the earrings?” Chat replied calmly and grinned. He saw nothing wrong at drawing the attention of three villains to himself with those two miraculous on his body.

Multimouse stared at the hero from Viperion’s shoulder for a moment. Was he serious? “It is probably not so good idea, you know?” Viperion spoke first. “You should not draw the attention to yourself Chat!” Multimouse reprimanded. Chat’s ears and tail fell.

“But Hannah is still in danger.” Multimouse whispered. “Hawk Moth, Mayura and Volpina think she has the earrings.” She warned. They needed the girl really safe and the safest place right then was beside one of the heroes.

“I’ll go get her.” Chat replied.

“Wait, call your power Viperion.” Multimouse asked.

Viperion called for his second chance and Chat vaulted away.

“Give me your miraculous, Chat Noir.” A voice called from the side. Hawk Moth stood on a chimney and held Hannah in his hand. The girl was hanging limply. The villain grinned wickedly at the hero and shook the body he held for good measure.

Chat felt his heart break. He was too late. He never should have left her alone. She was in too much danger. He made a mistake. It was an awful mistake. That girl trusted him so much to return the Ladybug miraculous and he left her alone and unprotected.

“Ryuko, go and help Chat Noir on that rooftop over there.” Multimouse ordered. Then she directed King Monkey to look for Mayura. If Hawk Moth was there and he had Hannah, then Mayura was not very far and they both knew that Hannah did not have the earrings.

Chat Noir went after Hawk Moth, he threw himself after the villain with an intention to grab the girl off from his hands. He needed to save her, he needed to keep her safe and make everything right again.

The illusion disappeared.

The next moment, Chat Noir was pinned to the rooftop by Mayura and Hawk Moth was pulling his ring.

“Where is Hannah?” Chat demanded.

Ryuko was nearby but too far to prevent the ring being removed.

“Chat got trapped by an illusion. Second chance.” Multimouse whispered to Viperion who pulled his bracelet and restarted the five minute count.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for cutting it here. As the whole battle was written in one evening, some parts did need interventions but the next one is almost ready too.


	62. Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the battle continues ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope your nails are intact.

“Chat, when you go looking for Hannah, you will see an illusion that will be a trap.” Viperion reported swiftly, but that was all he managed to say to the anxious hero.

“Be right back.” Chat replied and vaulted away.

He saw Hawk Moth holding Hannah again. He was told about the illusion, but he could not ignore it. Ryuko was slightly closer but still too far.

“Second chance.” Viperion called.

“Chat, Hawk Moth holding Hannah is an illusion hiding the two villains.” Viperion instructed as soon as he restarted the five minutes.

This time Chat returned with Hannah in half a minute. Now he knew where the villains were hiding.

“Hawk Moth is looking for you, he thinks you still have the earrings.” Chat explained to the girl while he carried her away and back to Viperion. Hannah did not protest nor complain about being moved here or there nor about being left alone in the alley previously.

“Hawk Moth, Mayura and Volpina are going after you two.” Multimouse repeated the sentence to Hannah. The girl nodded to acknowledge she understood the danger. “Both of you go on that rooftop near the vent and let the other Multimouse on the roof.”

Viperion protested that it was safer for Hannah to stay by his side, but then he remembered he would also have to defend the girl in the case of an attack. Chat Noir vaulted away with Hannah on his arm to the designated rooftop. He quickly opened a hatch on the side of the vent.

“Hi Hannah.” One Multimouse spoke. “I am Multimouse, keep me with you and I will protect you.” Hannah smiled and put the tiny hero on her shoulder just like she saw Viperion did. “That way all heroes will know if you are in danger.” Multimouse explained.

“Chat Noir” Another Multimouse told him. “Please give me Ladybug’s earrings, I can return them without compromising her identity.” One Multimouse could merge Tikki and stay hidden or use the excuse that she was allowed to use it just to cleanse the violet butterfly.

“You don’t know who she is?” Chat teased, grinned and went to reach into his pocket. He was going to give her the earrings if she asked for them. He had no chance to hide, detransform and then transform into Mister bug, he needed to protect Hannah.

But before he had a chance to get the earrings from his pocket, he got hit with a stick and rolled away. He covered his pocket with his hand and zipped it back up. He saw Hannah roll away and hide in a dark spot behind the vent with a Multimouse by her side. The Multimouse that asked for the earrings was keeping watch.

“He has both the earrings and the ring.” Hawk Moth snarled. Mayura landed on her feet just beside Hawk Moth. Both charged after Chat Noir.

Chat Noir laid on the rooftop and groaned, he was in pain and dizzy from the blow to his head.

He looked around and at that moment, there were only three Multimouse and Hannah on the rooftop against Hawk Moth, Mayura and Volpina.

Two Multimouse jumped straight onto Hawk Moth and Mayura, they were slow but managed to put up a fight and keep the villains busy. Each Multimouse that was with the other heroes became aware of the most recent situation development. Each hero was instructed where to go.

“Voyage.” The horse hero called and a portal opened just above Chat Noir.

Hawk Moth pinned Chat Noir to the rooftop with his stick and went for his ring first as he could collect the earrings easily once the black cat transformation fell.

A portal opened above Hawk Moth’s head and he got hit by a banana before King monkey landed straight on top of the villain. Hawk Moth was dancing as he tried to fend off King Monkey. Other heroes, save Viperion followed.

Volpina passed through the portal and created plenty of illusions before she smacked Ryuko who followed right after the akuma, but the heroine quickly engaged in a fight. King Monkey joined in and made several Volpina illusions disintegrate.

Mayura went straight for the ring on Chat Noir’s hand and stepped one foot on the ring bearing hand. Chat was on his hands and knees on the rooftop and was trying to get on his feet. Hannah screamed to call the attention of the villain back to her but Mayura barely spared her a glance.

Mayura held on his ring with two fingers and tried to slide it off. One Multimouse jumped on her hand and tried to pry the fingers away from Chat’s ring. Another Multimouse jumped on Mayura’s shoulder and started to beat the villain over the face with her rope.

“Cataclysm” Chat called in an attempt to save himself.

A hole formed in the rooftop and he fell through.

But Mayura quickly grabbed the ring again and it slid off his hand. She quickly jumped to the side and remained standing on the edge of the hole in the roof and held the ring in her hand. She admired the ring for a precious moment and then bent over the hole to try and see Chat’s identity.

One Multimouse was on Hawk Moth, she was going for his pin, but she found the banana on her way and passed it back to King Monkey. Hawk Moth grabbed her and tried to throw her away, but she hanged her rope around his wrist.

The Multimouse that jumped on Mayura’s hand had snatched the ring from the villain’s hand before she closed her fist while the Multimouse on Mayura’s shoulder kept beating the villain’s face with her tiny rope..

Volpina was loosing the fight against Ryuko, but her pendant was still infected with the violet butterfly. Ryuko was a relentless fighter and Volpina did not have a chance to play her flute and make more illusions.

Viperion observed from a safe distance and followed the time on his bracelet. He looked at Multimouse on his shoulder but she did not ask for him to turn back the time.

Adrien landed hard on a rough and dirty floor. He quickly rolled away to the side as far away from the hole in the rooftop as he could. His claws were gone, his mask was gone, and Plagg was not there too, but he felt his pocket and found the earrings.

Tikki appeared.

“Hello Adrien.” Tikki greeted.

“Mayura has my ring.” The boy admitted.

“You know what to do.” The tiny goddess replied.

“Tikki, spots on.” Adrien put the earrings on and transformed into Mister Bug. He checked his yoyo and quickly vaulted out through the same hole he fell through. He needed his ring back and the heroes needed help in the fight.

One Multimouse snatched the ring from Mayura, jumped and rolled away to safety before she put it over her waist. Mayura was still beaten over her face by another tiny hero on her shoulder and could not go after the ring instantly.

But Plagg could not unify, he needed Camembert, so Multimouse with the ring quickly jumped and ran away. Mayura went after Multimouse but caught a wrong Multimouse, one without a ring. She squeezed and shook the tiny hero, but could not find the ring.

Multimouse with the ring found Hannah and asked for the girl to take her and find a piece of cheese. Hannah took the other tiny hero and smiled. The girl was quick in finding the door to the staircase, she slid along the railing by the stairs until she was in a room with food.

“Find some Camembert, quick.” Multimouse ordered Plagg.

Hannah laughed as the tiny Kwami swallowed the whole triangle of cheese.

Plagg was fed in an instant.

“Plagg, Mullo, unify.” Multimouse ordered, part of her suit turned black, her boots and her gloves. She was satisfied, she looked sufficiently different than Lady Noire to be recognized.

“Hannah, stay here and hide.” The tiny hero ordered and the girl smiled and hid away. One Multimouse stayed with her.

When Chatmouse returned, she saw that Ryuko was trying to fetch Volpina’s pendant, but each time she went for it, Volpina jumped after her choker.

Mayura held one Multimouse in her hand and Hawk Moth held another. Peagasus and King Monkey looked at Chat unsure what to do.

“No! Leave the mice alone!” Mister Bug shouted at the two villains, the other two heroes were reluctant to attack and endanger the tiny hero.

Viperion warned Multimouse on his shoulder that they had less than a minute.

The tiny Chatmouse ran towards Ryuko and jumped, the other Multimouse on her shoulder was already giving instructions.

Volpina used the moment and played her flute and there were hundreds of Volpina illusions around.

Ryuko went for an attack, but there were too many illusions. King Monkey threw his banana on Hawk Moth again and he dropped Multimouse he was holding.

“Water dragon.” Ryuko called and the water made all illusions disappear in smoke. Then she went after the remaining one, she threw Chatmouse on Volpina’s necklace and she cataclysmed the pendant.

“Mister Bug, catch the butterfly.” All the mice shouted.

Mister But caught the violet butterfly and purified it while King Monkey kept Mayura at bay.

Mayura dropped the Multimouse and grabbed stiffened Hawk Moth and escaped away.

“Miraculous Ladybug.” Mister Bug called, the swarm of ladybugs washed over the building and everything was fixed.

Lila was on her hands and knees on the rooftop. Her wide skirt was lifted and her underwear was uncovered for the world to see. The heroes looked away. None of the heroes wanted to approach her and help her down the building, she might steal their miraculous too.

Mister Bug offered his fist for a fist bump, Ryuko offered her fist too, King Monkey howled in celebration, Peagasus and Viperion joined the group for a fist bump. They all looked at all the Multimouse around.

They quickly jumped up onto their joined fists for a fist bump.

“If anyone of you sees Ladybug, would you please tell her I need to speak to her.” Mister Bug pleaded. But he winked at Multimouse Everyone confirmed and then each of the temporary heroes took one Multimouse with them.

“I will return your miraculous to Ladybug the same way I got it from her.” Multimouse promised to each of the temporary wielders.

“You can send the earrings back to Ladybug through Tikki.” Chatmouse told Chat.

“One of you is with her, aren’t you?” Chat asked with a gentle smile and gently touched Chatmouse’s ear. “She can send me the ring through Plagg.” He smiled.

Each Multimouse retrieved a small box and sneaked away into a small bathroom. There all the Multimouse finally united and grew into a Marinette sized person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now back to the party.


	63. Winning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party is starting slowly, but there are remaining issues to resolve for the two heroes and finally some good news.  
> Lila did not go home ... unfortunately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahem, hopefully this is still interesting ;)

Winning

Multimouse released her transformations and took in a deep breath of relief. The fight was not that long in time, but it took so much of her energy. She smiled to both kwami who floated in front of her. Then she took the ring off and gave it to Plagg.

“Can you return this to Chat Noir for me, please?” She asked with a smile.

“I will, Multimouse.” Plagg winked and floated away.

Marinette shook her head, gave Mullo some food and patted his head between his ears.

Mister Bug was in a bathroom one floor below and detransformed into Adrien.

“Tikki, can you return the earrings to Ladybug, please?” The boy asked with a wide smile.

“Thank you Adrien, I will.” Tikki chirped, hugged the earrings and floated away.

Plagg and Tikki met outside the windows between the two floors.

“Hey Sugarcube.” Plagg smirked.

“Don’t call me that, Plagg.” Tikki retorted.

They both continued to float to their chosen.

Marinette hugged Tikki.

“Tikki, I’m so happy to have you back.” She put on her earrings. She put Mullo in her purse and retrieved a small parcel, she unwrapped one pear shaped macaron and gave it to Tikki.

“There you go, sorry all the nice ones went for the party.” Marinette apologized.

“That is all right, this one tastes good too.” Tikki chirped.

“And it was made by Chat Noir.” The girl smiled and winked.

“Chat needs to talk to you.” The tiny red goddess reminded her.

“Yes, eat up, I will call him” Marinette replied.

“You can transform right now, Mister Bug did not use the lucky charm.” Tikki smiled.

Marinette transformed into Ladybug.

She went out from the bathroom through the small window and then returned to the rooftop, everything was quiet, but she needed to make sure that Lila was not still there, a quick but thorough search revealed only an empty rooftop, so she opened her communicator.

In another bathroom on a different floor, Plagg was hugging Adrien.

“Hey hey, I’m glad to see you too.” The boy smiled and gave Plagg a piece of Camembert.

Plagg swallowed his cheese, earned a ‘glutton’ remark and informed his chosen that Ladybug was probably looking for him.

Adrien transformed into Chat Noir.

He had a call on his baton. It was a video call. He switched off the light in the bathroom and stood in front of a white wall. Even if she recognized the bathroom, it was not suspicious to detransform there, anybody had access and it was close to the most recent battle.

“Hey Bug.” He greeted.

“Hi Chaton.” She replied. “You needed to talk.”

“Glad you got your earrings back.” Chat smiled.

“And you got your ring.” She smiled.

“Listen, I promised Hannah, that first girl who got akumatized, that we will try to do something about her situation.” Chat was really trying to explain but he had absolutely no idea what they could do.

“Can mayor Bourgeois do something about that?” Ladybug shrugged. She was totally in, but she had no idea how to handle such issues.

“That is probably the best address to go to.” He confirmed. Actually, that was exactly his idea, for the two of them to jump into an office and ask someone to solve it.

“Okay Chat, meet you there.” She replied and they both cut the call. Well, this was not her using the miraculous to deliver a gift to Adrien, this was not selfish use.

Five minutes and one cataclysmed sheet of paper later, mayor Bourgeois, looked rather pleased with himself. He saw the last akuma battle. Chloe marched in her father’s office with Sabrina and officer Roger Raincomprix in tow.

“I got him here, dad.” Chloe exclaimed before she saw the two superheroes there. She frowned at the first moment, then she crossed her arms and huffed and finally she looked at the two heroes and pouted.

“I believe we are finished here, mayor Bourgeois.” Ladybug smiled widely.

“We trust you with the rest of the procedure.” Chat Noir greeted with his signature two finger salute and both heroes went out through the window.

“This went easier than expected.” Ladybug noted.

“Looks like Chloe spoke to mayor bourgeois about it even before the attack.” Chat added.

“Yes, he had the papers ready. Did Chloe do something nice for someone?” Ladybug muttered. “Oh, it must have been Adrien who put her up to that.”

“Um, sounds like him.” Chat confirmed. He blushed, but they were running across rooftops already.

They split up and went back to the same building and detransformed.

Adrien got out from the bathroom and hid his kwami in his shirt. He went back to the room that held the food. People started to return inside after they saw the Ladybug cure. Everyone was talking about the fight. He found Hannah who stood in the corner.

“Hi Hannah.” He greeted. “Are you okay?”

She just smiled and nodded.

Luka and Kagami appeared from the side.

“We tried.” Kagami sighed.

“She is not talking to anybody.” Luka warned.

Adrien leaned over to the girl. He remembered how he promised that Chat Noir and Ladybug were going to help her stay in France and in school, but right then he was Adrien and he was not supposed to know what was done.

“Hi Hannah.” Max approached her cautiously. “Markov and me did an analysis and made a list of administrative steps that should be done. Markov even filled in the forms for you … “ He continued to explain the procedure that should be finished positively within a few years.

She smiled weakly.

The Owl was back, followed by Ms Bustier and a few more teachers and then the rest of their class.

Finally Adrien saw Marinette enter the large room. He saw the fear in her eyes in the moment when their eyes met. But she clenched her fists and approached, she was looking at Hannah, not him.

Marinette steeled herself. She had to do this for Hannah, she had the time to wail over her feelings for Adrien and the fact that Lila exposed them later. Mister Owl and Ms Bustier already approached Hannah, but the girl kept quiet and still.

“Please don’t expel her from school?” Marinette and Adrien both begged the teachers almost simultaneously.

“Or France.” Marinette added weakly.

“That imposter?” Lila screamed from the door. “Should be deported instantly to whatever hole she crawled out.” She stormed over in her flashy green dress and her high heels. “She made me say terrible things about myself in front of other people.”

“And a live stream.” Kim smirked and threw his arm over Ondine’s shoulders but she flicked it away. Several people looked around and of course, there on the side were Alya and Nino and Alya’s phone on the stick.

Alya was livestreaming again, if she ever stopped. Adrien did not remember seeing her on the rooftop. He only hoped his identity remained a secret. Well, if Alya produced no reaction when she saw him, then she did not know.

“Look, we searched for Adrien’s friend over internet and there she is in a refugee camp.” Wayhem showed a picture on his phone to anyone who was willing to look, and those were many. Other fans had other photos.

“Phew, a cheat.” Lila dismissed that claim. “Photos can be engineered.” Yep, she knew.

“I also searched for the new friend of Adrien Agreste.” Another fan approached shyly. “And the facial recognition software says this is her on this picture of a city destroyed in a war.” She pushed her phone in Lila’s face.

“Another forgery, you can’t rely on pictures you find on the internet. Come on!” Lila protested.

“Actually, Sabrina, Markov and me searched online and found hours of footage and hundreds of photos of war and refugee camps where Markov was able to identify Hannah.” Max announced adjusted his glasses.

“Pfft, some girl who looked like her, probably.” Lila dismissed the claim.

“We used the highest confidence score and we can claim with 98.7 percent probability that it was her in those films and photos.” Max countered. Markov floated up next to the boy and produced a serious image on his screen to make a point.

“Sabrina and me examined the paperwork.” Chloe marched in with Sabrina next to her with an opened phone. The girls have, no doubt, followed the discussion through Alya’s live stream on their way from the city hall.

Chloe stopped and smiled, she checked her nails and flipped her hair just for fun. All eyes were on her. Marinette knew what they did in the mayor’s office. Now Chloe was stealing the spotlight, but she was ready to accept it, for Hannah. Adrien just sighed, that was just Chloe for him.

“Apparently some papers got slightly misplaced, we could not possibly find a statement for the citizenship of Hannah, but the rest of the family is fine and as a minor she can stay with her parents in Paris, France.” Chloe announced and there were collective cheers.

“What? But then her parents must have forged ...” Lila protested.

“There were no forged papers in my father’s offices.” Chloe warned. “Just a missing piece of paperwork. A piece of paper can get misplaced so easily, especially since they filled in the application forms while they were in some awful camp.”

“And that is forgery.” Lila insisted.

“No. Hannah was born in Paris you see. And my father is granting her citizenship based on that so that her family does not need to bother with the lost paperwork. Her parents both have medical degrees and already provide healthcare to the citizens of Paris, we would prefer not to bother them with unnecessary administration.” Chloe huffed.

There were relieved sighs all around. Marinette and Adrien took turns to congratulate Hannah and hug her. The rest of the class followed and then Luka and Kagami. Ms Bustier awaited her turn with a gentle smile while mister Owl insisted that Alya filmed the whole event for the school blog.

At some point Lila stormed out from the room.

Hannah’s parents were crying and went to hug Chloe.

“What happened? Are we okay? Can we stay.” Hannah’s brothers asked Adrien many questions simultaneously. They were bouncing on their feet, eager to hear some good news.

“Yes, you can stay.” Adrien told the boys with a smile. The boys first hugged him, then Marinette, then a few more kids from the class they recognized and then went after Chloe. Hannah was already there, but not visible due to her height.

Chloe was engulfed in a family.

“This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” She protested. “My clothes is getting all wrinkled.” She continued. “I had my hair done.” She huffed. “And my nails.” She rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get an appointment on a Friday afternoon.”

The class was laughing.

Alya felt her hands were shaking, she looked at the camera on the stick and took a step forward. Then she finally signed off her livestream and joined the hug. The fact that Chloe protested the hug only encouraged her classmates to hug her even more.

Then Adrien and Marinette looked at each other, shrugged and joined in. Marinette was pushed and pulled in, almost to the middle by a pair of strong hands. She was just in front of Chloe in a moment,

“You owe me Adriekins.” Chloe smirked. But then her eyes fell down and saw Marinette. The girl just realized it was Adrien who hugged her and nudged her to get closer to Chloe. She was lost for words, and probably several other senses.

The blonde heiress observed his arm wrapped around the girls shoulders and the way the girl was blushing when she realized just who hugged her. She wanted to latch onto that arm and push herself between the two, but there was no space.

“This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” She protested again. The group of hugging people slowly dissipated. Adrien and Marinette took a step back from Chloe while Luka and Kagami approached Chloe hugged her and patted her back.

Alya went away with Nino to a table to get some food. The rest of the class followed. Actually, it was much like everyone took a few steps away from Marinette and Adrien to let them have some space to talk.

“So.” Adrien switched his weight from toes to heels and back. He wanted to pretend that he did not hear what Lila had said. He looked at the necklace, the mouse miraculous that was still around her neck and smiled. She did not return it to Ladybug yet.

“So.” Marinette looked at her shoes. She was sad, this was probably the end of their friendship. He was just putting up with her for the sake of the others. She was a stalker and he was going to feel uncomfortable around her and they could not socialize and they could not have the house, kids and …

“Lila is finally exposed as a liar.” He concluded. There he was, he offered a way out. This was her chance to say that yes, Lila was a liar and Marinette never loved him that way.

“Mhm.” She confirmed. At that moment, it was a true achievement that she was able to stand on her feet, she did not melt and she did not run away.

Luka, Kagami, Nino, Alya, everyone was flashing glances towards the two of them from time to time, but nobody forgot to take some food to eat. There were other guests there, but the pair in the middle of the room was left alone.

“And Hannah can stay.” The boy continued.

“You did that.” She confirmed. “Thank you.” She replied weakly.

“Technically, Chloe did it, or her father, more precisely.” The boy rambled.

“Mhm.” She confirmed.

Suddenly, a slow dance song played from the speakers. Nino was at the stereo. It was the same song that Adrien and Marinette danced on at Chloe’s party.

“Wanna dance?” The boy offered.

Marinette raised her face. Her eyes were slightly blurry from tears that started to accumulate.

“Oh.” He deflated.

“I want to.” She muttered and stepped closer. Adrien pulled her even closer and put his hands on her waist, she hid her face in his shoulder, for the sole purpose of hiding it, okay. But she was happy, he wanted to dance with her, that was a good sign.

They danced together and were soon joined by more people dancing around them. It was nice to dance and to relax, to forget about akuma, villains, citizenships, mean people, teachers, homework and other problems.

She could stay silent, her eyes were closed, it was so cosy and warm and she was happy.

Adrien was happy. He was dancing with Marinette in his arms. He liked the feeling. He wanted to stay that way. He did not want to speak and ruin the moment.

So they danced.

But the song finished.

He took her hand and led her out of the room. They both sat on the stairs. He put his hand over her shoulders.

Marinette closed her eyes. Then she squeezed them shut. She took in a deep breath. She needed to tell him, she needed to tell him herself.

“I do love you.” She confirmed, but she looked at his shoes. “But I know you love Kagami, so I never told you. I’m sorry that I followed you when you went away with Lila, I knew she was a liar and I was worried. And perhaps a little jealous.” She added in the end.

“Marinette.” Adrien felt his throat tighten. “I feel the same way about Kagami that I feel about you.” And maybe, just maybe, that feeling was slightly like the way he felt for Ladybug and they were all very dear friends. But he did not continue to elaborate that part out loud.

Her eyes snapped up at him.

He couldn’t tell her that he loved Ladybug because it would sound stupid. Adrien knew Kagami and Marinette far better than Ladybug. It was Chat Noir who spent so much time with her and knew her well enough to be in love with her, and only Chat, nobody else.

“Actually, maybe, it is not exactly the same, but I care for you both.” The boy admitted finally. “And I thought you liked Luka.” He added.

“Actually I do like Luka but … “ She sighed, she could not finish the sentence.

“Luka is really likeable.” Adrien nudged her.

“Yeah.” She grinned. “Kagami is very likeable too.” She teased.

“Can we … “ Adrien asked deep in thought.

“Hey you two!” Kim called with his hand wrapped around Ondine’s shoulders. “Come over to eat and drink, the food is almost finished and then we have some gaming and dancing to do!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Statelessness is a serious issue. A conservative estimate says that there are about 12 million stateless people in the world, and that is not counting the refugees. The procedure to resolve the issue varies from case to case, from country to country, laws and regulations change in time. I wanted to resolve the issue in a simple way, not to burden the fic with administration. It might look like mayor Bourgeois did something illegal, but he could have just shredded an 'administratively obsolete' sheet of paper that was a form filled outside of the French territory and is not a formal document of the French Republic. Many countries treat each individual as a separate legal 'unit', but in France there is also a layer that is a family 'unit' so the family is treated as a whole once they enter the legal system.


	64. The Party (part one)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party is in full swing, more dancing, talking, and someone who just refuses to go home and wants to ruin everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: the last quarter of this chapter might be hard to read (but it is sort of punishment for Alya)

The Party (part one)

Adrien took Marinette’s hand and led her back to the large room. There was music playing and they could see that Luka was dancing with Kagami. Kids took some food to nibble on and two glasses of juice and ate in peace until Alya made them dance for one more song.

Adrien kept glancing towards the pendant around her neck. He wondered who collected the miraculous from the temporary wielders and why Marinette still had the mouse pendant around her neck.

“Sorry I lied to you in the museum.” She muttered, but he heard her clearly.

“So you really wanted to kiss me.” He teased.

“Not you! Your statue.” She whined, but she was completely red in her face and lost her step.

Adrien tightened his hold on her.

“Um, yeah … “ Why was he feeling jealous of a piece of wax? Was that jealousy? Or did she actually resent his prank. “Actually, I deserved that little white lie after the prank I pulled, I guess.” He smiled sheepishly.

“Um … “ Marinette felt slightly guilty, scratch that, she felt a lot of guilt, because she also stolen his phone to remove a message, she had more embarrassing secrets to admit, not to mention other lies, like the reason to keep his photos on her walls.

Adrien replayed each conversation they had in his head with this new information at hand. The photos of him on her walls had a different meaning now. But he did not know what to do about that, just like when she told him that she loved him – as Chat Noir.

“I like your necklace.” Adrien mentioned at one point when Marinette caught him staring in that direction (and blushed). They were both rather desperate to change the subject, she was too nervous to continue, and he had no idea where to go with it.

“Yes, um, a friend borrowed it to me … for the evening?” She stuttered out.

“So, you have to return it, to your friend?” Adrien chuckled. He did not remember if Marinette had the necklace before the akuma attack, but then again he was not really looking. She probably got it after Ladybug lost her earrings.

The music stopped and someone from the community centre took stand to make a speech.

“Since we have many new guests here, it is my pleasure to announce that all numbered items are for sale and we are grateful for your contributions.” The art teacher spoke. “You can enjoy a small concert in the music room on the other side of the hallway starting in about … “ the teacher looked around and somebody shouted the number. “ … ten minutes after our performers have their refreshments.” Everybody laughed. “Have a nice time and if anybody is interested in joining our activities, please contact any of the volunteers here.” The man pointed towards his t-shirt.

Kagami and Luka joined Adrien and Marinette during the speech.

“I want to go to the music room to hear my classmate.” Luka mentioned.

“I’d like to hear that too.” Adrien beamed. Luka did not have the bracelet. Kagami had no choker.

Music started to play again from the speakers, it was a happy song played in the background to raise the mood, but still sufficiently loud to encourage young dancers.

Kagami leaned closer to Marinette. “Let’s dance!” The fencer proposed to the other girl. Marinette was surprised by the proposal only for a moment. Both girls started to move to the rhythm and bounce lightly away from the two boys.

“So?” Kagami inquired when she assumed they were sufficiently far from the boys. She was making awkward moves that might be only slightly modified fencing moves, and she struggled to follow the rhythm, but she was dancing.

Marinette blushed and then smiled. Then she laughed at Kagami’s dancing routine. Marinette spent her days watching the music videos and practised the dance moves she saw to the point that she barely avoided injuries.

“And?” Kagami asked again. She wanted to know how the situation between Adrien and Marinette had unfolded. What did Adrien do? The boy obviously did not mind that Marinette loved him, so something must have happened.

Marinette shrugged and smiled. Because nothing happened. As far as she knew, Adrien and her were still friends. Maybe they were ‘just’ friends, maybe they were good friends who really cared about each other. Actually she knew what to reply.

“He told me he feels the same way about both of us.” Marinette finally admitted. She pushed back her competitive nature and the fact that her biggest rival for the attentions of Adrien was just there, she did not want to hurt her as much as she did not want to get hurt.

Kagami was glad that they have both reached an agreement not to argue over boys. She hang out with Luka to assume his easy demeanour and acceptance of other’s people’s feelings. Kagami turned her eyes towards the said boys.

Adrien was dancing, he probably watched the same music video that Marinette did and knew the moves, and reproduced them rather well. Luka stood in one place and moved his body in the rhythm, but his hands assumed a position as if he was holding a guitar and playing it.

Marinette looked around and saw Hannah in a corner by a refreshments table where she talked to her family. They looked in good mood. The boys were stuffing themselves and kept poking each other to the sides while Hannah moved to the music while she listened to her father.

Alya was standing next to Nino. She wanted to go to Marinette and apologize, but the girl was busy with Adrien and Kagami and it was a party and Alya had no idea where to start and what to say except a thousand ‘I’m sorry’.

“We are going to the music room.” Luka said when the boys approached Kagami and Marinette.

“You girls?” Adrien asked with ah hopeful smile.

“We might, don’t know yet.” Kagami beamed.

Marinette blushed hard when Adrien took her hand again. It was not something he planned to do, it just came up naturally. He might have taken Kagami’s hand if she stood closer to him at the moment they were talking.

The fans, however, Wayhem especially, noticed the attention their idol was giving to the girl, the only girl who managed to sneak into the ‘boys only’ party in Adrien’s room, the girl who accompanied him when he was running away from his fans to go to a cinema.

The students got out from the reception room into the hallway and were passing the stairs on their way to the music room when a glass of undefined colourful liquid was launched.

“Look out” Someone shouted.

Adrien grabbed Marinette and hid her under him.

The dissolved paint landed straight on Adrien, but also splashed over Luka who pulled Kagami behind him. Nino also got dirty. Alya was there too, but she was more concerned for her phone than herself or anyone else.

“Oops!” Lila exclaimed. “I’m so clumsy.” Then she grabbed Adrien and tried to pull him away from Marinette. But she was in heels and a pretty dress and not too strong. Adrien pushed her away and took of his shirt and t-shirt that were wet and wiped his face with the dry part.

“You are my date, you are supposed to take care of me, to bring me caviar and champagne. What kind of a gala is this anyway, they only have pastries and juice?” Lila protested. “I will have your father know where you dragged us. We are going to a proper gala after this and you are going to change.”

“No Lila, this is the charity event I planned to go to, the only event I planned to go to this evening.” Adrien straightened up and took a few steps away from the girl while he pulled Marinette at his side. Other two boys were naked to their waists too.

“I asked you not to attack my friends.” He continued.

“Your friends?” Lila inquired slyly. “Your father has named me his muse, we are the power couple. It is our chemistry that sells the clothes.”

“There is no chemistry between us.” Adrien replied calmly.

“Are you sure?” Marinette had her eyes trained on the attacker and she was not thinking about the half naked boy beside her, nope, definitely not, and she was red in the face because of Lila. “This stuff stinks. There have to be some chemicals.”

Luka dropped his clothes on the floor and held Kagami because of her obvious intention to pounce on Lila holding some stick as a weapon.

“Who will model the next line with you?” Lila inquired.

“Juleka could do it. We did it before.” Adrien grinned.

Most of his class had filled in the doorway to the reception room and were observing the event unsure on what to do. Juleka muttered something about not being able to do it.

“Of course, Juleka would be great.” Luka stepped in.

“Yes, Juleka would make a fantastic model.” Kagami exclaimed with certainty. She honestly had no idea if the girl had what was needed, but she was Luka’s sister and Kagami was giving the girl her full support.

“What is going on here.” Wayhem stepped closer followed with a group of fans. “Who did this to Adrien?” He inquired.

There were fingers pointed towards Lila.

“You attacked Adrien?” Wayhem screamed.

“No no no. It was just a lover’s quarrel.” Lila replied slyly and walked over to Adrien swaying her hips.

“No.” Adrien protested. “You deliberately threw this stuff on all of us.”

“Oh, you are all soaked.” One of the volunteers passed by from the stairs. “You guys have helped a lot today, you earned this, come on, follow me.”

And the group left and shot a few glares towards Lila on their way. Those who needed went into the bathrooms to wash themselves as much as they could. It was just some kind of oil paint from the paint room, nothing dangerous.

The girls were mostly able to clean themselves. The boys got a nice new community centre shirt. It was a black t-shirt with green letters and an emblem of the centre on the chest. Adrien loved it. Luka felt praised. Nino just muttered ‘cool dude’ and changed.

Alya lingered next to Lila with her phone on a live stream again.

“Care to share your impressions of your date with Adrien Agreste up to now?” The aspiring journalist asked sarcastically.

Lila saw the phone and schooled her face.

“Oh, it was wonderful until his so called friends ruined it for us.” Lila sighed.

“Why did you steal Ladybug’s earrings?” Alya went straight to the point.

“Oh it was an accident, and I was just keeping them safe for her. But Hannah had to take them away from me, she would have taken Chat Noir’s ring too if I haven’t got involved. She would have destroyed France if she got it.” Lila nodded to make a point.

“How did you get akumatized?” Alya asked.

“You see, Hannah made me say all those awful things about me, and that made me feel really sad. Then the akuma, the violet butterfly, left Hannah, because she is so evil that even Hawk Moth doesn’t want anything to do with her, and the butterfly, it went straight for me, I couldn’t do anything.” She whined.

“So you did not jump, fetch the butterfly and stick it into your pendant?” Alya pointed her index finger onto the said pendant around Lila’s neck.

Lila panicked, looked at Alya’s grin, looked at the phone and then sighed.

“Oh you saw that?” She asked.

“It was a live video.” Alya smirked.

“Um, well, you see … “ Lila needed and excuse and she needed it quickly. “Remember that time when Ladybug failed to fetch the violet butterfly? And then on the next day there were many stone statues just like the akuma on the previous day?”

Alya could not believe where this was going.

“So you see, Ladybug was not there to cleanse the butterfly, so I had to sacrifice myself for the sake of Paris and its citizens.” Lila smiled her falsely sweet smile.

“Hawk Moth and Mayura were right there.” Alya protested, and maybe she felt a little sick to her stomach.

“Exactly, and that is why I had to do it.” Lila confirmed.

Alya was unable to respond to the amount of falsities that she just heard. Who, in their right mind, was able to interpret the events in that way? She had no idea how to react to that except to grab the girl and scream into her face, but that would be unprofessional.

However, Lila used the moment of Alya’s confusion to wave her goodbye to the camera and walk away. She knew that the TV crew was just outside the building since the akuma attack and she felt inspired to give more interviews.

“Dear viewers this was a live stream, I will come back to you with an article on this, you can watch the video of the battle in the meantime.” Alya warned towards the camera, raised an eyebrow and filmed on her final greeting to the viewers.

Alya did the best she could to keep professional. She knew she had a job to do, to clean up her blog from garbage and to make a commentary. And she had to distance herself from any statement Lila had made, she owed her viewers the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The party goes on ...


	65. The Party (part two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was interrupted like 20 times while editing this ... it's jinxed.

The Party Part Two

The concert part had began. Two teenagers played the violins, one played a pioan and one was on an acoustic guitar. They enjoyed the melodies for about twenty minutes. Luka and Adrien stood side by side, leaned onto the wall, their shoulders touching. The two of them obviously enjoyed each tone and appreciated the skill. Nino stood next to Adrien with his arms crossed and his head nodded in the rhythm.

Marinette and Kagami leaned onto each other and listened. The rest of the class sneaked inside, Hannah included, but nobody drawn so much attention as Chloe who stood tall and proud and pretended not to be impressed.

However, the music stopped and young performers announced a short break before they continue with their next block of pieces. The students chatted and many went out from the room to see what else was there while the boys stayed to chat with Luka’s classmate.

“So what else is interesting?” Chloe addressed no one in particular, but she knew that Sabrina was listening. “They mentioned something for shopping. Find me something to buy, Sabrina.” The heiress and her devoted friend walked away.

Marinette and Kagami asked Hannah to give them a tour of the place. But she did not know much, she knew where the gaming room was and where the art room was. The supplies were distributed in the attic and in the basement, there were classrooms, so she discovered the place too.

“Show us the art room.” Marinette proposed. That was the place where Hannah probably spent most of her time anyway. Alix, Rose and Juleka joined for the art room, other classmates simply followed to see what else was there.

The group passed the corridor and at least one peeked in each room they passed to see what was inside. They passed a room with a large mirror used for dancing and other exercises. There was a library and another classroom that was simply labelled ‘French’.

“Music room was cool.” Ivan told Mylenne who agreed.

“Did you see the gaming room?” Kim nudged Max.

“That is actually the computer room.” Hannah smiled. “But they left there only the gaming console for tonight.”

“I have computed the average scores for the games they were playing and I can report that … “ Max started to recite games, numbers and percentages.

“This is the art room.” Hannah motioned towards the door.

Apparently, Nathaniel and Marc were already there, busy with their new comic room, they used the desk to draw and practically ignored anything that was going on around them. Hannah was grateful that the art teacher was there to explain what they usually did there.

“We all have a need to express ourselves. Some of us are the visual types. Here out users can paint and draw whatever they want. It can be art, but sometimes it can be a form of therapy. And there are children with special needs for who it can be both.” The teacher smiled.

The walls were lined with simple paintings. There were lovely green landscapes, dreamy mountains, even paintings of a bright blue sea with some old boat on it. And there were ruins, buildings on fire and messy black human figures with blots of red paint.

Kim was making comments on the paintings of the ruins but Ondine punched him in the side.

Rose cooed over the flowers and landscapes. Juleka muttered her approval. Alix scanned them all quickly and registered how many of them were signed by Hannah.

They all heard when Chloe walked in with Sabrina on her side. She behaved as she did not even notice anyone else there and examined the paintings on the walls. Sabrina was trying to make notes on her phone. She saw her classmates and quickly made a nod and smiled to acknowledge them.

“And this one, and this one, not this one … “ Sabrina was busy taking notes and making a list. Chloe frowned or made a disgusted face whenever she disliked something and remained neutral for those that she did like.

“You can also purchase some of the works done here.” The teacher mentioned offhandedly. “And apparently you should be really quick if you want any.” He added and motioned with his head towards the mayor’s daughter.

Chloe somehow made her way over to the desk where Nathaniel and Marc were working on their new comic book. The two boys continued to work quietly while she was there so Chloe leaned over the desk to see what they were doing.

“You made Lila your villain?” Chloe exclaimed. She straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “I did all that effort and you chose Lila for a villain in your next comic book? And no Queen Bee? Come on, when is my turn? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.”

Everybody laughed. If someone muttered anything about the Miracle Queen, they were ignored.

Chloe got to the door.

“Doing shopping here is utterly boring, I have no one to compete with and you are the only one who can afford to go against me.” Chloe uttered.

“Ahem.” Kagami stepped forward and raised an eyebrow.

“Ugh, I guess you’ll do too, Kagami.” Chloe acknowledged. “But you will have to get yourself a shopping assistant, like me.” she raised her nose. “Dupain Cheng, are you ready?”

With that, the four girls walked away.

It was a competition.

Later, the two girls flashed their cards, Marinette helped Kagami to collect all the items in one box, while Sabrina had to arrange everything for Chloe.

They went to the music room for the last part of the concert and then finally returned to the large hall with food and dancing.

The girls went to the middle of the room and danced the night away while the boys stood to the side and watched.

Alya walked over to Nino. She spent her time typing a quick piece for her blog and editing the announcing text for a few interviews she had there. She considered removing anything related to Lila at first, but she decided to let it stay there as a testimony to Lila’s actions.

“Lila was taken home by someone from the embassy.” She mentioned. “But only after she twisted the facts for anyone who would listen.” Alya looked at her feet. She had to publicly admit that she was fooled but she was just a fourteen year old girl.

Chloe and Sabrina joined in.

“Sabrina’s father will take Lila to the police station for questioning if she ever gets out from that embassy.” Chloe added. She frowned at the offered food, took one piece, pinched her nose ceremoniously and stuffed it into her mouth. But she ate it.

Marinette and Kagami were dancing. Alix dragged Hannah on the floor and the two started to dance beside them. Juleka and Rose were already dancing in the corner, Rose tried to pull Juleka closer, but the tall girl insisted on remaining out of spotlight.

Sabine and Tom walked in.

“We just cleaned up and locked up the bakery and decided to come over for a while.” Sabine smiled to Alya and the rest of the class. Tom and Sabine heard about the akuma attack(s) and who got akumatized from her customers, but didn’t know the details.

“Since we are late and have so little time, why don’t we have some fun?” Tom pulled Sabine away and the two of them started dancing. Then they noticed that Hannah’s parents were dancing quietly on the other end of the room and slowly danced their way over.

The food was mostly eaten, the kids were ready to dance the night away, but Hannah’s parents already collected hteir sons on their side and were about to take a hold of their daughter who was still dancing with the rest of her class.

“It is getting late and we have a shift in the morning.” Hannah’s father told her.

“Come on, she can stay with us.” Alix whined.

“Oh, she is a bit young to stay out with you.” Her mother replied.

“But she is in our class?” Kim protested.

Hannah and her father exchanged a look. The man raised an eyebrow as if he questioned the girl before him. She glanced around her classmates and looked back at him. He frowned. Then the girl looked at her feet. She took in a deep breath and looked up.

“I’m twelve.” She acknowledged.

“You’re what girl?” Alya screamed.

“Twelve?” Ivan gaped.

“Given your constitution and height I can confirm with 78 percent certainty that that is your correct age.” Max recited.

Alix snickered until she saw the way Kim was looking at her. She was going to get teased for her height again. Ugh.

“But how did you get into our class?” Nino asked.

“I took a test.” Hannah replied. “I took many tests.”

“Ministry evaluates foreign students based on a set of tests and then determines to which class they could go.” The librarian clarified.

“Oh” It sounded rather complicated to Kim. “you mean like you need certain amount of points and certain time to go to the Olympics?”

“I guess so?” The librarian answered.

“Okay, we really need to take the boys home to bed, last night they spent all night gaming.” Hannah’s father noted. Kim whistled. Max adjusted his glasses. Nino said ‘dude.. Adrien grinned. Marinette and Hannah gaped. They did find the boys awake and gaming in the morning.

“What?” Sabine stared at Tom. She looked like an angry mother. Tom looked guilty. Well, it wasn’t like he told them that they were allowed to play all night. He just left them to play while he turned in for the night. Sabine was waiting for an explanation.

“Umm .. they looked asleep when we were going to the bakery.” The man scratched the back of his head. He was not sure if he checked on them if they were awake at all. He only made sure to stay quiet and not wake them up. He would notice if the game was up, right?

“But she did sleep, we actually overslept so we were late for school.” Marinette stepped in. Yeah, that really sounded like an excellent justification to let the girl stay longer at the party. We were late for school, we served our sentence at the library. Cool.

“Tell you what, we give you half an hour more, but then you have to bring her home because she will wake us all if she gets home later than that.” Hannah’s father proposed.

“It’s a deal.” Marinette replied. The class cheered and the rest of the family left.

Tom and Sabine walked away to drink some water, settle a discussion and dance some more. They were both tired after a long day and there was another one like that coming up tomorrow. The kids danced for half an hour but the whole class decided it was the time to go after that.

Adrien left with his bodyguard. Alya walked away with Nino. Marinette helped Kagami with the items she purchased into the driverless car.

“Are you coming for the tournament tomorrow?” Kagami asked.

“Of course.” Marinette smiled.

“Me too.” Luka cut in.

Tom and Sabine decided to walk just behind Hannah and Marinette and take Hannah home first.

“I really liked those cookies you made Hannah.” Tom spoke from behind the girls.

“He liked them so much he wants to make them himself tomorrow.” Sabine added. “But we have many orders.”

“You will wake me up when you need me?” Marinette asked and felt defeated. She had plans.

“We will need you from eight in the morning when the rush hour starts.” Sabine replied calmly.

“Ugh.” Marinette groaned. She really wanted to go and see that fencing tournament.

“Would you like me to come over and help?” Hannah offered. “My father has a shift in the morning, but my mother is learning at home thanks to Max.”

“Okay then?” Marinette looked at her parents. “And until when do you need me?”

“At least to pack the orders. It might take until noon.” Sabine looked guilty. She felt guilty for asking her daughter to work for them when she obviously wanted to do something else. But it could not be helped, they worked for the party whole day.

“I will come over and help out. You did so much for me.” Hannah smiled.

“Okay then, see you tomorrow at seven.” Tom winked.

“Seven?” Two girls screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Tom serious?


	66. Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly Gabriel and Nathalie after the battle.  
> Adrien returns to the Agreste mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I should write 'enjoy' for this chapter, it is the villains side. But only first quarter is repetitive. Still I kept it to get into the state of mind.

Gabriel spent the afternoon in anticipation of the perfect moment to akumatize someone and create his next evil masterpiece. He could sense it, throughout the day, a sense of injustice and justified anger. The feeling grew, then subsided slightly and then increased again.

He knew it was actually two girls, both stubborn and strong and resourceful, but still different. He akumatized three girls at lunch but the result was disappointing, they were beaten rather quickly. But this akuma was going to be new and less predictable.

He waited, transformed, in his lair. He knew his moment was going to come. Yes, he knew where Adrien was taking Lila, he made sure he knew. And he knew those two girls were going to be there, and he knew Lila was going to do it.

Nathalie was there in his lair, in case the event became bigger than he expected. But the rage and despair of a single person overwhelmed his senses and he had to send out a butterfly. She resisted, she fought, she negotiated and she asked questions, but she was an excellent akuma.

Except she disobeyed. The Truth Seeker was far more interested in going after Lila than Ladybug. Frustratingly so. Lila sipped out some irrelevant facts. Fortunately, it never occurred to the Truth Seeker to ask Lila about him, Gabriel, nor Hawk Moth, for that matter.

Ladybug was procrastinating protecting a civilian from this akuma, or maybe it was about protecting this particular civilian? He did not care. Because Lila snatched the earrings from Ladybug when she got the chance. Too bad he did not see her identity. Apparently nobody did.

He ordered Nathalie to transform and the two of them went there. With no Ladybug in the picture, Chat Noir was going to be an easy prey. But the villain failed to achieve the full control of his akuma while he had to pay attention to where he was going.

Lila wanted to put on the earrings, he felt other people were after her, she probably wanted to transform and play Ladybug. He did not want to have that. He sent the Truth Seeker after the earrings and the akuma got them easily. Even Chat Noir got there before he did. That was just as well.

Except this akuma was a really disobedient one. It was his fault, really, he did tell her in his negotiations that he wanted to make a wish. And now she wanted to make a wish of her own. He never expected the girl to negotiate that way with Chat Noir.

Hawk Moth finally got there and concentrated in order to assume the full control of his akuma. And yet, she disobeyed again, but since he tried to seize the full control of her mind, she did not negotiate any more, she tried to take the ring by force.

He decided not to allow this akuma to get the cat miraculous too, it was too dangerous, so he released the violet butterfly to make her easy prey and jumped after her. Mayura took the hint instantly, but the cat was faster and took the girl just out of his reach.

“How did she get the miraculous to the temporary wielders?” Gabriel snarled at the screen in his office. He was determined to watch the battle again, but the anger of defeat when he though he had an upper hand was making him too angry to be useful.

“You are tired sir. We just returned from the battle.” Nathalie tried to calm down her boss. She knew he was useless in this condition, not that Gabriel succumbed to rage that often, at least not as a civilian. “Why don’t we take a break before we analyse what happened?”

“You’re right, Nathalie.” Gabriel confirmed, and that brought a smile on Nathalie’s face. “I am prone to make more mistakes in this condition. I need to calm down.” He switched off his computer. “Let’s switch off.”

“You mean no media? No devices? No schedule?” Nathalie asked if the words meant to switch off from the world for a while, with no phones, computers, TV and other media.

“Why not? Let’s do that.” Gabriel sighed. “I need to switch off to be able to concentrate.”

An hour later, perhaps a bit more, Gabriel decided he was ready.

“There is only one temporary hero whose identity we don’t know yet.” Gabriel concluded. “It is that mouse girl.”

“Multimouse.” Nathalie filled in. “She was a particular nuisance today.”

“I agree.” Gabriel confirmed. “We need to find out who she is. She somehow avoided the wasp stings during the Miracle Queen.”

“Maybe she was not in Paris?” Nathalie suggested.

“That is … one of the options.” He agreed.

Nathalie made a note.

“Now about the temporary wielders. How did they get their miraculous today?” Gabriel pondered.

“Perhaps Chat Noir delivered them.” Nathalie suggested.

“That means he has access to the miracle box.” Gabriel grinned. “Good.”

Nathalie made a note.

“Perhaps Ladybug delivered them before she faced the akuma.” Gabriel stroked his chin. “But why did she face the akuma alone, then?”

“Perhaps they were too slow to transform?” Nathalie suggested.

“I expect there is a video of the akuma battle on the internet already?” Gabriel suggested.

“I would expect many of them, considering the number of persons in the room.” Nathalie replied.

“Good, let’s have a look.” Gabriel switched on his screen.

“Um sir?” Nathalie stared at her tablet. “It looks like there was a live stream of Adrien’s date on the Ladyblog.”

“A live stream? I never agreed to a live stream.” He shouted. “Just as well, I will deal with that later. It was a free advertising stunt anyway.”

Nathalie tapped on her tablet.

“I sent the video of the battle onto your screen.” She informed her boss.

Gabriel stared onto the screen and turned up the sound. Lila taunted the girl and he provided the butterfly. Everything was familiar. Then there was that exhilarating and frustrating moment when Lila took the earrings but Ladybug’s identity was not revealed.

“Who put those dull table cloths there, anyway?” He muttered.

Then there were things Lila said about Marinette.

“Sounds like Lila is jealous of that girl.” Nathalie suggested.

“Or the attention Adrien gives her.” Gabriel remembered the lucky charm his son made.

“Sir, I think we need to stop with the akuma battle. There is something going on on the social media related to Adrien’s date...” Nathalie suggested.

“I have no time for that now.” Gabriel brushed her off. “Of course there is, his date was an akuma.”

They continued to study the video of the battle and they concentrated on the heroes and painstakingly marked all their conclusions for hours.

“Sir, there is a lot of action on social media regarding Adrien.” Nathalie warned again as notifications kept popping up.

“Yes, he went on a date. That was the purpose of the whole stunt. The akuma attack on the premises only increased the attention.” He replied. “Has he returned to the mansion?”

“His bodyguard let me know he has just left Adrien, sir.” Nathalie confirmed. “I will check on him.” She typed a message quickly.

Adrien sat in the car and relaxed. He had a nice evening with his friends in the end. He looked at his black t-shirt with the community centre logo on it and smiled. He was going to treasure it, it was not that much different that the t-shirts he usually wore to school.

But when the car passed the gates leading to the Agreste mansion, and when he saw the stairs leading to the man entrance, he remembered his father’s demands. He was expected to be a perfect date. And he knew he wasn’t.

There was no one on the stairs, that meant his father did not send Nathalie to scold him. The man was going to do it himself. The boy cautiously opened the large door and entered while his bodyguard was parking the car.

It only occurred to him when he pushed the door that he might have waited for his bodyguard to be finished with the car and open the door and postpone what awaited for him on the other side of the door for a few precious moments.

No, he shouldn’t hesitate. He should just enter and face his father. That was inevitable. He pushed the door open and faced an empty lobby. The lights were switching on automatically. The boy scanned the room for his father, perhaps lurking in the shadows.

But his father was obviously not there. He quickly walked up the stairs, he expected his father to call him at any moment, he felt the pressure on his back while he ascended the stairs and walked over to his room.

He almost ran into his room and closed the door behind him. He let out a long breath and discarded his school bag and his duffel bag with the fencing gear. This had been a long day. But it turned out good in the end.

His phone demanded his attention. It was Nathalie. She was busy with his father, but demanded information on how was his date. He was certain that Nathalie already knew his date was a disaster. It was her job to know. He typed the message reply.

‘My date could have been better. The charity event was a success.’ Adrien looked at what he typed. It looked a bit harsh, but he let out the worst. Actually, he thought how his date could not have been better, Lila was exposed, Hannah protected. He sent it.

“Adrien is not too thrilled about his date but the event itself was a success.” Nathalie smirked.

“Good. Now, let’s go back to business. So we know where all the temporary wielders were?”

“All known temporary wielders were at the party sir.” Nathalie stared at the tablet.

“All?” Gabriel was surprised.

“Even Chloe joined after the attack.” She answered.

“Ah, Chloe, fashionably late.” Gabriel replied flatly. “We should have been there as soon as I sent out the butterfly.” He concluded. “It is really a shame we were not there the moment Lila stole those earrings.”

Nathalie could do nothing more than nod to confirm his conclusion. They both watched the moment play on the screen on repeat. Gabriel even played it frame by frame. But the bright light caused by a forced release of the magic transformation messed up the video.

“I’m sure we would have seen more in real life.” Gabriel frowned. There was something else that messed up his concentration ever since the battle had stopped. There was a person angry and vengeful to the point that she was ready to destroy anything.

“What is it sir?” Nathalie inquired when she saw Gabriel’s face. Anyone who saw the man would see nothing to it, the man barely showed any expression, but she felt the shift in him. Something was bothering him.

“I feel the anger and despair building up again.” He turned his attention to the screen. “But I want to have a plan before we go.” He played the video again. It was a long day and if he was going to give it another try, he was going to make it worth it.

“You know that Lila reaching for that butterfly is all over internet by now. There are some negative reactions.” Nathalie warned. She eyed the number of unread notifications, that was going to take hours of her time.

“It is still publicity and I’m sure it can be explained away.” Gabriel dismissed her concern. But then he dismissed Nathalie from his office. He needed the time to think and to concentrate on the feelings. He might create yet another akuma before the morning comes.

Nathalie did not go to sleep. She went to her office to check those claims. Of course some people were writing bad comments about Lila after she went for that butterfly, but there was something wrong, not all of it could be ascribed to that single event.

She had to see the video of Adrien’s date and everything related to the date for herself. This was going to be a long night.

Adrien paced his room restless and giddy. Plagg munched on a particularly large chunk of Camembert and watched his chosen. The boy glanced towards his kwami from time to time. The tiny glutton took his time to enjoy the cheese this time.

Adrien could not get his mind of Marinette. She admitted that she loved him, twice, not that she knew. He tried to explain it away in his head about her being star struck just like she explained it away after Weredad. But he couldn’t.

There were too many clues that she explained away, the photos of him in his room, each time she babbled out something only to retract it in the next sentence, the way Alya and Nino wanted to leave them alone, the wax museum.

Why did she leave him and Kagami to share an ice cream alone that day?

A small smile formed on his face. Ladybug gave her the mouse miraculous again. And she kept it after the battle. He was certain that Multimouse delivered the miraculous to other temporary wielders. It was an excellent idea. And she had the necklace on for the rest of the party.

“I need to talk to her as Chat, Plagg.” The boy finally turned to his kwami who was licking the last remains of cheese from the plate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In short, Gabriel is more concerned about his failure during the akuma attack than Adrien's date.


	67. Questioning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat asks Marinette questions about the battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was so easy ;)

Questioning

Chat Noir hopped over the rooftops while his eyes glanced over the attic windows above the familiar bakery. He smiled, she was still up. He landed with a loud thud intentionally.

Marinette returned home happy about the party, relieved that Hannah’s problem was resolved, and hopeful that she had just witnessed the end of Lila’s reign of lies. She talked to her parents about the party and lingered in the living room for slightly longer than intended.

She finally reached her trunk and pulled out the miracle box. It was time to return the mouse miraculous back into the box. She held onto the pendant that was still hanging around her neck. Adrien told her he liked the necklace. She blushed.

She scratched Mullo behind his ears and took off the necklace. It was selfish to stick to a miracoulous just because her crush thought it was a nice piece of jewellery. She had to put it away. Her hand passed over the miraculous one more time.

A loud thud announced his arrival. Of course. She should have expected that. She should have known. She should have been faster. She shouldn’t have lingered around and talked to her parents downstairs.

In a hurry, her fingers needed precious more time to close the box properly. She quickly wrapped it into a cloth and put it into a gift box and stored it into the trunk. She heard footsteps on her terrace and knew that the cat was hovering above her rooftop window.

There was no time to tidy up the mess around the trunk, there were several gifts wrapped still lying around on the floor when she shut the lid on the trunk. She jumped to her feet and climbed the ladder that lead onto her loft bed.

Chat smiled, she clearly saw his face through the hatch window. That only increased her determination and speed. They are going to have words. Who did he think he was? To barge in on a girl so late in the evening. She could have been changing. She blushed.

She opened the hatch window with so much speed and force that she hit Chat Noir in the nose.

“Ouch.” He complained and rubbed his nose. It was good that the superhero suit protected the boy from injuries, even such as a bleeding nose.

“Chat! I’m so sorry Chat.” Her determination to scold him had instantly dissolved and switched to concern.

“Hello Princess.” Chat greeted in a strange voice because he was still holding his nose. “How are you this fine evening?” He bowed.

Marinette had to laugh at his antics. His voice was funny, his actions exaggerated.

“I’m good, thank you. But how are you? I just smashed your face.” She replied with a smile and slightly less concern than before.

“Um, I’m, fine.” Chat rubbed his nose and then slid his hands away. “You really are a fierce little mouse.” He added with a grin. That was why he came to talk to her, or so he told himself, and his kwami, there was absolutely no other reason but the superhero business.

Marinette stiffened in the first moment. She should have expected that subject to be brought into the conversation, but it arrived so abruptly that she was at a loss for words. But then she relaxed and smiled. She was so happy that she was able to use the mouse miraculous so efficiently.

“Um, So, I never got a chance to ask Ladybug, we were so busy this evening.” He smirked. “Tell me, please, how did that go? One of you mice stayed with Ladybug to pass us the instructions, right? Those were Ladybug’s instructions?”

Marinette made a small nod. “Yes, the instructions were from Ladybug.” Not a lie. She was doing just fine. Everything was going to be fine. He had some questions and she was going to provide answers for him.

“So, you don’t know who she is?” He teased. Her face changed suddenly. She panicked. “Not that you have to tell me her identity if you know.” He raised his hands defensively. “I just want to know if you know, because you could get akumatized, I need to protect you, you know?”

“Um yes.” Marinette replied too quickly. His eyes lit up. “I mean no!” She shouted and raised her hands. “I mean I know.” Then her eyes went wide. “I mean I don’t know.” Her hands flailed all around her face. “I mean I understand what you mean but … Ladybug never revealed her identity to anyone?”

Yes, it sounded like a question. It was not really an answer to what he asked her, but she could not just straight out lie to him at that moment. And he elaborated on exactly why he wanted to know in such a way that she could not deny him some kind of an answer.

Chat had to laugh. “Okay, I get it.” He might have been mildly disappointed that now he did not have an excuse to hang around her more and protect her from getting akumatized. Wait? Why would he be doing that? Oh yes, because she knew Ladybug’s identity. But she didn’t.

“So … no need to protect me! But I still do not want to be akumatized. I mean nobody does, obviously.” She rambled. She was Ladybug. It would have been a disaster. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind being protected but I can’t ask for a special treatment from a hero.”

“Apparently, one of your classmates got akumatized willingly today.” Chat replied wistfully and looked to the side.

“Oh, yes.” She saw it as Multimouse, the one who stayed with Ryuko.

“So, you returned your miraculous.” His eyes were on her neck.

“Um yes.” She replied and touched her neck on the place where the necklace used to be just minutes ago.

“Can you … tell me how you got it?” He leaned in closer to her and spoke softer. “I mean … some day it might be me who will be delivering the miraculous to you and I’d really like to know how do you prefer me to do that?”

“How do I prefer?” Marinette was confused. Ladybug never asked the temporary wielders how they liked their miraculous to be delivered. But it was not like he was going to get the mouse miraculous from Ladybug and then deliver it to her, wasn’t it?

“Um, it was in my room?” She offered. “In a box in my room.” She confirmed. It was not even a lie, it was stored in the miracle box in her room.

“Oh, so you escaped from the centre due to the akuma attack, got home and found the miraculous in your room.” Chat concluded.

Marinette nodded eagerly. This was fine. This was going just fine.

“Is this how other wielders got their miraculous too?” He smiled. He had an idea how the temporary wielders got and returned their miraculous that evening, they certainly did not have the time to reach home. But he wanted her to tell him.

Why was he asking her that? More precisely, why was he asking her, Marinette, that? He was supposed to ask Ladybug. But Ladybug was without the earrings at the time. And what he asked was perfectly legitimate question after all.

“Ladybug knew what to do.” Marinette confirmed.

“So it wasn’t you who delivered the miraculous to the other wielders?” He looked disappointed.

“Um, I helped?” She smiled and hoped he would not push too far into that. He smiled widely.

“And you collected the miraculous too?” He leaned in.

Her eyes went impossibly wide. She should have planned it better. Chat saw how each of the temporary heroes left with one Multimouse. She might invent a lie, but if Chat caught her lying it would only make things worse.

“Yes.” She replied meekly. This was bad. Ladybug was inconsistent. First she said that Multimouse was not getting her miraculous back and now she trusted her with so many?

“No! I mean ...” She could have told him that Ladybug collected the miraculous, but he could go to other temporary heroes and just ask.

“It was me who collected the miraculous.” She finally admitted. “Why are you interrogating me like this?” She protested.

“I’m sorry I … didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” He looked concerned. He did not want to make the conversation like that, like he demanded information. “I was just curios.” He smiled. “You did a fantastic job today, you were amazing, Marinette.”

She shifted, from self defence and protest, to relaxed understanding and then to awe, and she blushed at his praise. And he looked at her so … gently? Loving? No no no not like that, he did not even looked at Ladybug like that, not when she was watching, anyway.

“Um … Thank you?” She squealed. Yes she was blushing, no, there was no way to hide it from him now, he already saw it, she knew he already saw it. And he smiled some more, she blushed like that when he praised Marinette as Adrien.

“I mean it. You were fantastic. You saved us at our worst times. You always jump in when we need you the most.” He continued to praise her. “The other heroes, they help out, but you … without you, today would have been a disaster.”

Marinette was breathing hard. Chat looked at her that way that made her heart beat harder, and he was looking at her, not Ladybug, but Marinette, and he spoke like that about her and … she needed to put a stop to that, right then, the memory of Chat Blanc was not something to put aside.

“It is all a mask, that power I get, I’m so clumsy.” She replied with determination that countered the meaning of her words. “I even revealed my identity on my first assignment.”

“Only to me.” He smiled. “So, you returned your miraculous just now?” He wanted to switch the subject from her not being a hero and somehow he went straight back to questioning.

Marinette felt her eyes go wide again. How did he know she did not return the necklace right away? And did he know or it was just a lucky guess? Was he at the community centre? Did he see the necklace? Then again, she was beside Adrien while his fans were taking pictures, he could have seen her on social media.

“Yes.” She confirmed after a moment. She knew that the moment of silence was awkward. But she was not able to take that silence back. She was thinking of an excuse for that, she was tired, it was late, she was thinking of something else …

“So I just missed her?” He asked with a sigh. “That is so unfortunate. I would love to have a nice evening chat with My Lady and my Princess on a place like this.” He motioned with his hand towards the view from her terrace. But he looked at her.

She crossed her arms, smirked and raised an eyebrow. That was just not going to happen and she knew exactly why. But she could not tell him that either.

Chat smiled and leaned back. He spared a glance through her hatch window.

“Tidying up? Someone’s birthday coming up?” He asked casually as he observed the wrapped presents on the floor of her room. He could not remember that anyone from his class had a birthday that weekend, but he might have missed that. And she had family too.

“No.” She replied honestly, there was no birthday coming up for at least a week.

“Then why do you have those presents all wrapped up, they even have name tags on them.” He teased. But his eyes focused. He had night vision, but he did not need that. He had sharper vision of a hunter and one name tag was flipped for him to see his own civilian name on it.

“The presents … um, I sometimes make things … in advance?” She suggested. Was that creepy? She did not say twenty years in advance so it was probably not creepy. Why was he staring like that through her rooftop window. Was the trunk open? Did he see Tikki?

She approached him and looked down to be able to see what he was looking at. Two boxes were barely visible, other boxes and the trunk were obscured by her bed. The rest of the room was a mess. No Tikki in sight.

They heard it coming. It was a high pitch noise that gave it away. Chat wrapped and arm around the girl in front of him and extended his baton in the other. They were sufficiently high when a bag hit the patio and released green glowing powder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't know if I will be able to post anything tomorrow and this one needed practically zero editing (or I'm too tired to spot anything).


	68. The Monster Maker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is another akuma attack and this one goes after Marinette and Hannah.  
> Later, Adrien is being checked on by an adult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why another akuma?  
> It will make sense.

The Monster Maker

“My parents.” Marinette screamed while Chat took her into the night to hide. Nothing looked like a safe place and nowhere was far enough. But she screamed for her parents and started to squirm in his arm. So he put her down on the rooftop of Le Grand Paris. Maybe Chloe was in the mood for another good deed?

“I’m going back for your parents.” He promised and vaulted away. Marinette did not wait. She transformed while she could clearly see where he was. She had to catch up with her partner and help him lead her parents to safety.

“I am the Monster Maker.” The akuma shouted. “Now I will turn you into a monster.” Another bag of glitter fell onto Marinette’s rooftop terrace, but this one was pink. “I hate pink. I know your parents are home!”

Chat slammed his body through a window on the far side of the building. He landed rough, upside down on the floor. The next moment Ladybug stood beside him gracefully. She offered Chat her hand and flipped him back on his feet.

Several smashed doors later, they found Tom and Sabine in Marinette’s room. Tom was covered in green glitter and turned into Weredad. Sabine was covered in pink glitter, she had horns and a pointed tail. It looked like a tail of a scorpion.

Ladybug froze at the sight of her parents turned into monsters. She almost called them maman and papa. She outstretched her hand. Chat was angry and sad, because he was too slow to save Marinette’s parents. But now he had to run away to be saved from them.

Chat pulled almost petrified Ladybug while Weredad was trying to strike him. Chat barely contained the blow and then evaded a sting from Sabine’s tail. He smashed out through a circular window and straight onto the akuma.

“Give me your miraculous..” The akuma shouted and another bag materialized in front of her hand. “Let’s see what kind of a monster would you make.” Ladybug latched her yoyo to the side and swung away at the last moment.

“What is her akumatized object?” Ladybug asked as if she was certain she knew who was akumatized, not for the first time that night. The two heroes were on a rooftop on the other side of the park. Both of them studied the akuma who floated in the air.

Weredad and Sabine got out from the smashed bakery door.

“Where does that pitiful excuse for a human being live? Go and bring Hannah to me!” The akuma ordered. Weredad and Sabine walked directly in the direction of the building where Hannah lived. The heroes were sitting on the top of the very building. They needed to warn them.

The heroes were quick. Chat was loud. He had drawn the attention of all the tenants as well as the akuma. Ladybug picked up Hannah and took her away. Chat tried to get the attention of the akuma and seer her in a different direction, but Hannah and Ladybug were much better prey.

“I bet it is that shell she is wearing, I don’t see anything else.” Ladybug told Chat while she carried Hannah away.

“Where did you put Marinette?” Akuma demanded form Chat who deflected a bag of glitter using his staff. It fell apart but none of the glitter touched him.

“She also has something one her head in place of her hair … isn’t that a helmet?” Hannah muttered as she was looking back towards the akuma and a Roman soldier style helmet. Ladybug faced forward and tried to be faster. But the akuma was way too fast and followed them around with ease.

Another bag materialized between akuma’s hands and flew in their direction. Chat missed it with his baton, Ladybug yanked the chord of her yoyo and the bag missed them. But now Ladybug and Hannah were free falling onto the street below.

Going forward was not an option. A bag of glitter fell apart and the tiny particles filled the air just in front of them. Ladybug threw her yoyo in the air as soon as it retracted into her hand and called her lucky charm.

She got a broom.

“Can you fly that?” Hannah asked as she stared at the broom, it was an old type, the kind that witches were using to fly in the stories.

“Looks like it is time to clean up the mess.” Chat teased as he scooped both girls out of the way of the next bag of glitter that was going straight at them.

Ladybug was looking around and needed clues. Chat took Hannah on his back and ran away to one side while Ladybug with the broom ran to the other side. They both put communicators in their ears.

The Monster Maker stopped for a precious second or two. Should she chase after Hannah or after Ladybug. She touched the shell on her front and another bag of glitter formed.

“Chat it is the front shell, it has to be.” Ladybug warned. The bag of glitter was going after her. But another ball of glitter was going after Chat Noir and Hannah. Ladybug swung to the side and the bag dissipated in front of her again so Ladybug was falling quickly.

“Where did you hide Marinette?” Akuma shouted after Chat Noir. “I want to turn her into a monster too, just like I will do with you.” She threw another bag of glitter after Hannah even before she saw that Chat deflected the first one.

Ladybug landed into an alley. There were two large bags on sand stored just in front of a back door. Some construction workers must have left them there. There were other tools around. She puled both bags and launched herself in the air.

“Hey Monster.” Ladybug called the akuma for attention. The Monster Maker was more interested in following Chat Noir and Hannah than Ladybug.

“Chat pick up the bag from my position after she goes after me.” The hero whispered into the communicator. Ladybug did not go far, just to a rooftop across the street.

The Monster Maker hovered closer and Ladybug smashed the bag of sand at the same time the akuma released the glitter. The two clouds collided. The akuma assumed Ladybug got hit, she could not see, she turned around towards Chat Noir and Hannah.

“Chat, now, throw it.” The second bag of sand hit the akuma and the sand spread and formed a cloud before it started to fall down. The akuma was temporarily blinded with sand in her eyes. Ladybug jumped and used the broom to rotate and clear the air she was passing through.

“Do your thing and wait.” She launched her yoyo, it wrapped around the akuma and she pulled her straight onto Chat’s outstretched hand.

The front shield disintegrated and released a violet butterfly. Ladybug unwrapped the yoyo, caught the woman with the other hand and then caught and cleaned the butterfly with the other. The helmet disintegrated into tightly tied hair wrapped up into a bun.

“You’re not Lila.” Three voices were rather surprised.

“No, I’m her mother.” She admitted. “Ladybug, Chat Noir and … Hannah?”

The girl nodded.

“I’m sorry.” She bowed her head.

Ladybug threw the broom in the air called for the cure.

Chat picked up something that looked as a name tag, but it was a sort of a memory card to stick into a computer and identify the user. He saw the name Rossi on it and returned it to the woman.

“Lila told me why she caught that butterfly and got herself akumatized. And I believed her. But my bosses and colleagues told me I created a monster. When I asked her more questions about that boyfriend of hers and a photo shoot and her class … I feel so betrayed.” She bowed her head.

“They told me what else she did.” She added. “I do not expect you to take me home. Thank you for saving me.” She turned to walk away, but then she stopped. “I will take Lila out of Paris. We can’t stay here.” She walked away towards a door that lead to the rooftop.

Ladybug’s earrings were beeping for the last two minutes.

Chat’s ring beeped for the first time.

The two heroes bumped their fists. Hannah made a fist and looked at them reluctantly. Both heroes nodded for her to join.

“I’m taking Hannah home.” Chat smirked and vaulted away.

Ladybug shook her head. But then she remembered that Chat Noir might be looking for her where he left her and she quickly swung her yoyo in that direction.

Chat left Hannah on the tall window to her tiny flat. Her parents were already waiting inside.

“Door to door delivery.” Chat greeted with a two finger salute and vaulted away. He needed to return Marinette home and tried to compute how much time he had left and remember if he brought any Camembert with him.

Marinette was exactly where he left her and he got her back home quickly. But his ring warned him about the time and he finally decided not to linger. With a wave good night he vaulted away in the direction of the Agreste Mansion.

His transformation released the moment he passed his bathroom window. He wasn’t sure that Nathalie was not checking on him while he was gone. He shed all his clothes and let Plagg find any remaining cheese in his shirt while he took a quick shower.

He got into his room and he was right. Nathalie was there. And she did not look pleased.

“That was one long shower.” She noted and raised an eyebrow.

“I guess I felt a need to scrub after my date.” He replied in the same tone.

Nathalie was not used to that tone from Adrien and her face made it obvious.

Adrien was not used to Nathalie making faces so he stared right back.

“She threw paint at me.” He raised his eyebrows.

Nathalie decided to accept that as an excuse for his extended stay in the bathroom.

“You went against her on a live stream.” Nathalie noted.

“Was I defending my friends from her at the time?” Adrien was not sure which incident Nathalie was referring to, there were so many.

“You told to the public that you agreed to have a photo shoot with her only to get one of your friends back to school.” Nathalie raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, that’s true.” Adrien confirmed.

“That’s bad publicity Adrien!” Nathalie scolded. “The whole media campaign is endangered because of that.”

Adrien did not care about the campaign and if he blew it. He was a teenager and he felt rebellious. But he took a deep breath and did not take it all out on Nathalie.

“Where is father?” He demanded quietly, but there was something eerily cold in his voice. Nathalie noticed and gave him a look. She understood that the boy was boiling inside.

“He is busy fixing the mess you made.” Nathalie sighed. She was lying. It was her who was fixing the mess and making plans on how to dig the media campaign out of the gutter while her boss was too busy steering butterfly infested diplomat around the city.

“Why isn’t he here? Why did he send you?” The boy asked calmly.

“I told you he is too busy too see you. That date of yours should have been something to show off to the fans. Now your fans are protesting and asking people to boycott the brand.” Nathalie tried and failed to keep the calm facade.

“It was not my fault. Lila has made a spectacle of herself all on her own. I helped out at the charity. I tried to stop her when she went after Hannah. I didn’t make her steal Ladybug’s earrings while Alya was in the room streaming for her blog.” He defended himself.

“You mentioned another friend to replace her. We can’t just replace your father’s muse.” Nathalie continued. Adrien decided not to reply, he did not want to argue, hoe fought his battle and won. It was a long moment of awkward silence.

“You are going to be informed of your new schedule in the morning.” Nathalie sighed and wished the boy good night before she got herself out from the room.

“Glad to see you are he first on their list, kid.” Plagg hovered from the bathroom.

“Yeah.” Adrien produced another piece of cheese and put it on a plate on his desk. “Might as well check this.” He took his phone and saw many notifications from social networks, there was no way he was able to see them all. But there was an email from Wayhem.

The fans were at his side. They wanted to see Adrien on the fencing tournament, they wanted to see Adrien in school, and they wanted to see Adrien hanging out with friends. Nobody wanted to see Lila anywhere close to him. Most of them did not want to see Lila in Paris.

Then he went to the Ladyblog. There was an interview with Lila from after the attack and she was announced as a girl who had stolen Ladybug’s earrings. He felt too sick to watch, but the comments suggested that Lila should be committed to a mental institution.

There was an article from Alec Cataldi about trending and social media. Adrien was given thumbs up for his actions in the centre and there was a screenshot of him carrying a box. Lila was shown in the moment when she reached for Ladybug’s earrings. Alec invented a new bad grade just for her.

Nadia Chamack was reporting from in front of the centre and the footage showed Lila taken away by the embassy car while the official who took her gave a statement.

“This person was granted diplomatic immunity, however the Italian republic and its embassy in Paris distance from her actions.” The man spoke quickly and left before Nadia was able to ask him anything. Adrien smiled, they won, and fell asleep with the phone in his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mme Rossi finally understood that her daughter lied to her, but she can't take it out on her daughter so she lashes out on the girls who her daughter hates.


	69. Demanding Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Busy Saturday morning.  
> Marinette and Hannah help out in the bakery.  
> Gabriel talks to Adrien at breakfast and has a demand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an easy going chapter with two tiny twists

Demanding parents

It was a Saturday morning, the day kids were usually required to tidy up their rooms, help with the housework, keep their younger siblings busy (with something parent approved), go to school for extracurricular activities or help in the family businesses.

Alya was doing none of that. She spent the night writing editorials for the videos on her blog. She decided to keep the original Lila interview, but with the right introduction, this time. When the first rays of light broke into her room accompanied with her twin sisters, she had to finish.

Nino was woken up by his little brother Chris. The older boy fell asleep in his computer chair because Alya kept asking him to check what she wrote before she published it. Chris, on the other hand, wanted to play computer games. So the day began in an argument.

When Marinette dragged herself into the bakery kitchen, Hannah was already there. But the delivery boxes were empty and when an oven whistled it was Sabine who got into the kitchen to take the tray of croissants out.

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Sabine greeted. “Please bring these to the front when they cool down, the rush hour hasn’t started yet.” And the woman marched back into the shop with rather cheerful “Good morning, how can I help you?”

“Hi Marinette.” Hannah greeted. Her hair was all tied up and covered with a net. It looked like a bird’s nest. A really large bird’s nest. Marinette stared.

“Good morning, Marinette.” Tom greeted. “Hannah got here early and I was thinking to make those cookies before the rush hour.” He smiled and patted the raw dough in front of him. Both of them were forming the cookies and placing them onto a tray.

“You can put that tray into the empty oven and start packing according to the list … “ Tom looked at the wall, at the floor, below his feet, behind him. “Perhaps your mother has it.”

Hannah pointed with her finger to a point behind Marinette. The list was there, on top of the empty boxes. Of course.

Marinette helped her mother in the shop and filled the boxes as told and was grateful that nobody tried to start a conversation with her. She was too tired from having late night conversations to have early morning conversations too.

Several kilos of new type of cookies were made and there was a jar put up front for tasting. Finally, her father went about the first of their big cake orders for the day, while Hannah and Marinette shared the duties of filling the boxes and display windows.

Well, Hannah had no idea that there were so many kinds of pastries and cookies and which one was which and it took some training for her to fill some of the orders. But she was excellent at arranging colourful macarons into boxes.

“You two can go and have a proper breakfast now upstairs.” Sabine told the girls.

But Hannah wanted to do just one more thing. And then another. And yet another. Until Marinette dragged the girl away.

“What woke you up so early?” Marinette muttered to her young friend while the two of them assembled a breakfast for the two of them as well as Marinette’s parents who will come up when they get a chance.

“I had a nightmare.” Hannah admitted. “I was back, way back there … Then I woke up and did not want to go back to sleep. Papa told me that only bakers were up that early … so I told him this is where I’ll go.”

“My parents were probably surprised.” Marinette laughed.

“Yes.” Hannah smiled. “And we made the cookie dough.”

“So, the nightmare … do you want to talk about it?” Marinette asked quietly.

“It was … I was back there. But I couldn’t do anything. Not like before.” Hannah whispered.

Those words did not mean much to Marinette, but the tone was unmistakable. Hannah was having nightmares of the events she had already been through.

“There was this boy.” She breathed out. “Whenever I have a nightmare, there is always him. Sometimes it continues with my brothers or my father instead of him.” Hannah put her hands in front of her on the table and pressed one over another. There was a long silence after that.

“We should better get down so they can get here and eat in peace.” Marinette got to her feet. She was not going to push further with questions, she was not sure if she wanted to know the details anyway. Hannah quickly followed.

Although the girls offered to Tom and Sabine to go and have the breakfast together, the two adults were feeling rather guilty to push so much responsibility to their daughter and her classmate. But Marinette tricked them and her parents went upstairs to eat breakfast together.

“That hasn’t happened for a long time.” Marinette noticed.

Hannah beamed. She felt happy to be able to help out to the parents of her classmate and at the same time proud to be given such a huge responsibility. Because the two girls were running a bakery.

Marinette served the customers while Hannah was taking the baked goods out from the ovens and replacing them with already filled trays with other pastries. But she had no idea for how long some of them should be baked. So she did not set a timer.

“One more batch of croissants, please.” Marinette called from the shop, and Hannah brought them. There was a line of customers, but nobody complained as they watched the two girls work.

“Your parents are really lucky to have such nice and hard working girls.” One elderly man complimented.

“Come on, Claude, we used to help out our parents all the time when we were their age.” A gray haired woman next to him teased.

Tom was down the stairs and in the bakery kitchen in the last moment. Because something was overbaked.

“Well, these are well done, indeed.” Tom looked at a tray of pain au chocolates.

Hannah looked at the floor. It was her mistake. She felt guilty for destroying food. But there was no time to fell sorry for herself, there were other trays to take out and fill.

“Actually, these are good to eat, just not done the way we usually do.” Tom munched on one of the dark pain au chocolates.

Hannah perked up.

“Come on, let’s out the next round inside, shall we?” The man invited Hannah to help him, and the girl jumped to the chance.

Sabine returned downstairs and after a few more tasks, the two girls were offered to go upstairs and work on their homework or whatever else they felt like. And when the time came, the two girls were allowed to leave and go to see the fencing tournament.

Adrien groaned at his phone ringing. Right. It was morning and he was expected to get up, get ready and go for breakfast where he expected to get scolded. He looked at himself in the mirror and was rather satisfied with how tired he looked.

When he sat at the table, the food was waiting for him, but he was alone there. He rather enjoyed his breakfast and sneaked a few pieces of cheese into his shirt. The boy filled his stomach and started to be in a better mood.

Nathalie stumbled inside. She looked rather bad. She was tired. She must have spent her night trying to fix the damage Lila inflicted on the image of Gabriel. Adrien observed her cautiously, he expected to be scolded again and handed over a schedule that excluded anything he enjoyed.

Nathalie greeted and informed the boy that his father was about to join him for breakfast and got her tablet ready. She did not sit down and she did not eat, although she looked like she could use some food, and coffee, plenty of coffee, a strong kind.

At that moment Gabriel stumbled inside. His hair that was always brushed up, was now tilted to the side. His tie was crooked and his vest missed a button and his trousers were wrinkled. The boy never saw his father that tired and stressed. Not even when his book was lost. He prepared for the worst.

It was way after the last akuma that night when Nathalie finally made her boss look at the comments and the numbers and the opinion pieces. It was terrible, the campaign that began with the photo shoot with Lila has turned into the company’s worst nightmare.

Gabriel wanted to blame Adrien, he wanted to lash out all his frustration and anger on the boy who took that girl on a date. But he had to admit that it was him who created the akuma from Hannah and it was him who rejoiced when Lila stole the earrings.

But that was about seven hours ago. Now he was too tired to do lash out. And somewhere in between they realized they were not given much choice. Adrien was the popular one. Lila wasn’t. And the public did not want them together.

‘Contrast is trending for the next season’ someone wrote under a short video of Adrien carrying a box and Lila demanding caviar and champagne. It was that and not the scene where Lila stole the earrings that made the difference for Gabriel.

They could have turned Lila into an image of a ‘bad girl’ and Adrien was the ‘good boy’ who would bring her to the right path and the campaign would have been a success. But Lila was now labelled as many things and there was not enough magic to fix that.

The media praised Adrien (save for those users who criticised his choice of a date only to get hundreds of replies that the boy was obviously forced into it), they always did praise him, that was not new, but this time he was praised for his actions, and not his appearance.

“Have you noticed the media outcome of your date, Adrien?” Gabriel asked sternly.

“Some of it.” Adrien had to remain calm, he had to keep himself from spiralling down.

“And how do you see it?” The man inquired.

Nathalie was expressionless. She had her tablet in her hands but she gave off an impression of a person sleeping on her feet.

“I have done nothing wrong.” The boy concluded. He looked at his father straight in the eyes and forced himself to breathe calmly. He had this.

“They didn’t see nothing wrong there, but I did.” Gabriel warned. “You had no control over your date. Your friend streamed it live, we could not edit it.”

“It wasn’t my decision.” It was Alya’s and he did not object, he used it. “Lila took Ladybug’s earrings.”

“You and your friends jumped after her. What did you intend to do with Ladybug’s earrings son?” Gabriel connected the tips of his fingers.

“Return it to Ladybug, I guess.” The boy shrugged.

“And how would you do that? Do you know her identity?” The man demanded, his eyes were piercing.

“No.” Adrien replied, defeated. It is not like he could explain to his father that he could always tell Tikki to carry the earrings back to Ladybug.

Gabriel was satisfied, he knew that Kagami and Luka were temporary wielders and that explained why the two of them went after Lila, but he was surprised to see his own son to follow suit in the video. But maybe the boy only did what Kagami did.

“I have a proposal.” Gabriel continued. “Should you or any of your friends stumble upon a miraculous, especially if it is Ladybug’s earrings, or Chat Noir’s ring, bring them to me.” Gabriel spoke slowly and observed his son.

Adrien’s eyes lifted up to look at his father more carefully. He stared in a way that showed surprise, but there was horror and not a small amount of ‘do not look at the ring on your right hand’ at that moment.

“Those are precious items and would be stored here much more safely.” The man offered as an explanation of his proposal and gazed at his son. He expected a reaction. Several friends of his son were temporary wielders. He could be useful.

“Um, okay? I believe Kagami has a safe too? And Chloe?” The boy was not sure how to answer on a such demand. He resisted from looking at his ring. Plagg scratched his chest to remind him not to look at his ring and to provide something else to focus on.

Gabriel did not acknowledge the answer at first.

“It would still be much safer here.” The man repeated again.

“Okay.” The boy was vent quiet. There was no way he was going to do that. There was no way he was going to agree on that, but he was also unable to fight his father on that.

“About fixing the mess from last night, that trending article simply stated that I had to find a new muse quickly if I wanted to keep this company operational. You mentioned a colleague of yours?” Gabriel was all back to business as if he was in a hurry.

“Juleka.” Adrien beamed.

Gabriel was surprised by the answer. He saw the videos from last night and he expected Kagami or that pigtailed girl, Marinette, not a girl he did not remember.

“He mentioned Juleka last night during one of the incidents that was streamed live, sir.” Nathalie spoke as if she has just woken up (perhaps she did), but she tapped on the screen of the tablet rather quickly.

“Juleka Couffaine is Adrien’s classmate, has an older brother Luka, lives on a boat, they have a music band.” Nathalie was obviously reading from her notes. Adrien concluded that Nathalie probably had a file on all his friends and shuddered at the thought.

“We will study her visual appearance in my office. Have a nice day Adrien.” Gabriel got on his feet and left. Adrien stared after his father and smiled, he had just given Juleka a chance. He was not scolded and pulled out from school. He wasn’t punished.

Nathalie was reading his new schedule for the day. Piano practise, Chinese, fencing tournament, free time. Adrien jumped to his feet, he wanted to hug Nathalie, but the look she gave him stopped her in his tracks.

“Your father demands photo’s of Juleka. I trust you could help with that and send me any you find presentable?” She couldn’t help herself but sound tired. “Please also send me her contact in case her visual appearance is acceptable.”

“Consider it done.” The boy had so much energy. He had the photos already, Alya sent them, he just needed a few minutes. “Thank you Nathalie.” He beamed, snatched one more piece of cheese. “For the way.” And strolled away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is so relieved for not being scolded he forgets to panic about what his father actually demands of him.


	70. Hidden Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya and the class apologize on their way to the fencing tournament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday was ... too much.

Tomoe Tsurugi sat under a tree in a park on a Saturday morning while her daughter practised fencing with her eyes tied before the tournament that was about to start in a few hours. She had the most unpleasant conversation with Gabriel Agreste the day before.

First of all, Kagami told her mother that she was not going to the community centre as Adrien’s date because the boy was required to take another girl chosen by his father. It was some kind of a model and Tomoe decided to accept it. One did what an occasion asked for.

Since Kagami still wanted to go for an event with her friends, Tomoe allowed it. Her daughter needed to find her way in the world, in order to become a great warrior, she had to become independent and make decisions of her own.

But then, Gabriel called Tomoe and they had the most awkward conversation about her daughter. It was a ‘ _friendly_ _warning_ ’ from Gabriel about her daughter’s behaviour, she socialized with other boys than Adrien. Tomoe concluded that was acceptable due to fencing.

Gabriel continued about a certain boy with whom Kagami was seen alone and the said boy often gave her a ride on a bicycle. The last action was deemed as particularly reckless and unacceptable by the man who lead the conversation.

“But I thought you French people liked to ride bicycles everywhere. My daughter is not raised to be scared of a bicycle ride.” Tomoe objected the man’s claim and wondered how exactly was Adrien raised. Was the boy really forbidden from riding a bicycle? And that was how their conversation the day before had ended.

A boy was making a delivery from a certain bakery and passed by the park. It was not the shortest route, but it was the nicest. And the fact that a certain girl told him she often practised there with her mother was only further encouragement.

The delivery was done and Luka had some time before he was expected back at the bakery to pick up the next set of packages. So the boy stopped and observed Kagami from afar. He admired her determined moves, it looked almost like dancing.

He felt the melody inside him and he took the guitar that he always carried around and started to play the notes he felt. He was surprised by the melody. It was strong and calm, like a roaring thunder in the distance, like an autumn rain.

“Are you the boy on the bicycle that spends a lot of time with my daughter these days?” A voice from the tree on his left had asked him. Only when he approached slightly closer did he recognize a woman with dark glasses as Kagami’s mother.

“Hi, I’m Luka, and the boy on the bicycle is probably me.” Luka replied politely. He observed the woman carefully. The music he was feeling was so much like Kagami, but it was coming from her, it was so much like the melody Kagami had, sometimes, but Kagami was far more cheerful.

“What was that melody you played just moments ago?” Tomoe demanded. Her face turned towards the boy although she could not see him. She actually felt something when she heard that tune and she was not sure what it was.

“Um, I was making a melody for Kagami, that is something that I do, for persons I am close with.” The boy tried to explain.

“So you consider yourself close to my daughter?” The woman inquired. “You live on a boat with your mother and sister? You have that band? And you make deliveries from that bakery? And you take Kagami around on your bicycle?”

Luka confirmed each statement, although he gulped only for the first one. He felt questioned, but it was not too bad, Tomoe was different than his mother, and yet, both were equally fierce. Luka began to compare the two women in his head when the next statement surprised me.

“Kagami talks to me.” The woman noted. “Your mother sounds like a strong and independent woman. I’d like to meet her one day.” Tomoe stated as a matter of a fact. Luka did not know how much Kagami told her mother, but this meeting was something he wouldn’t miss.

Kagami finally heard that her mother was talking to someone, turned around, took the bond from over her eyes and recognized Luka. She walked over and smiled. They agreed to meet at the site of the fencing tournament and Luka left to continue with his deliveries.

Alya fell asleep at the table while she waited for her twin sisters to finish their breakfast. Particles of cereal ended up tangled in her hair. Then she fell asleep while the two were drawing something. She woke up to someone drawing something on her face.

She dozed off while the girls watched their favourite cartoon on TV. The girls jumped on her sleeping body on the sofa to wake her up. Then she gave the girls kinetic sand and moulds to play with. She was not surprised to wake up with that in her hair too.

“I can heat up the lunch and feed the two little monsters while you catch up on your beauty sleep.” Nora teased as soon as she arrived from her morning training. “I don’t have anything until the evening.”

Alya stumbled to her feet, ready to collapse on her bed when she suddenly remembered. They were supposed to go and watch Adrien and Kagami on another fencing tournament. And then they were going to have a picnic. She was not going to miss that.

Chris was ecstatic. Not only did Nino just rolled from the computer chair to his bed and fell asleep, but the older brother did not even wake up to give him (read it as make him eat) his breakfast nor remove the young boy from the computer games.

So when an alarm on Nino’s phone, that was set as a reminder, but served to wake him up, alarmed the boy that it was time to go for his best friend’s fencing tournament, Chris was actually slightly dizzy, tired and maybe even a little nauseous.

Nino was hungry, so he pulled his little brother to the kitchen table and put some food in front both of them. While Nino was eating, Chris was simply staring at the food. There was no way for the boy to put anything inside of him.

Finally, Nino sneaked over to his parents bedroom, knocked on the door and waited patiently. Soon enough, there was the face of his mother at the door. She returned from her night shift some time in the morning and just wanted to catch up on her sleep.

“Your father is at work.” Nino’s mother groaned and looked at Chris.

“I’d really like to go and see the tournament and join my classmates for the picnic.” Nino pleaded.

“He can take care of me a little longer.” Chris tried and failed to fool his mother with falsely innocent face. Their mother knew better.

“No, he can’t.” Their mother straightened up and marched straight to the coffee machine in the kitchen. She pressed a few buttons, turned around and crossed her arms. She was ready to scold both her sons.

Nino grabbed a cup and filled the empty spot in the coffee machine just in time for the coffee not to spill out on an empty spot. His mother noticed the move, then her eyes widened in realization what she forgot to do and then she looked at her older son gratefully.

“You can go Nino, as long as you stay away from the computer screens. As long as you promise me to be back for dinner and get proper sleep this evening.” She insisted. If she let the boy stay at home, he would be falling asleep or check his girlfriend’s blog.

Marinette knew where Adrien’s fencing tournament was. It was half an hour by metro, but the class agreed to go there as a group and they were all waiting for her. Nobody complained at her last moment arrival.

So they went. Marinette wasn’t late, she pulled Hannah along and the two girls ran towards the metro station. It was Adrien they were going to see, and as old habits die hard, Marinette was determined to be in time for that. Finally, they all entered metro and the train took off.

The class talked about everything but Lila. Nobody tried to mention her. Everyone felt slightly stupid for believing any of her stories, for trusting her. There were worried glances flashed towards Marinette and there were nudges between the students.

Alya felt obliged to speak first, but it was hard. She felt stupid and guilty for trusting Lila as well as blaming Hannah and Marinette for many things. Although she felt sleepy due to a sleepless night, she was also feeling more awake than she felt in weeks.

Nino stood by her side and contemplated what to do. He could tell how Alya felt and what she wanted to do, but it was her to do it, so he just stood there as a silent support. He exchanged a few eye contacts with his classmates. Everyone was distracted.

“Marinette.” Alya spoke solemnly. All eyes were on her. It was coming. Some of the students hoped to postpone the inevitable until the picnic time. Alix and Kim were the most impatient ones. “You were right. We were all fooled.” She swallowed.

“Some of us more than the others.” She continued and looked at Nino. “So to you and Hannah, I’m sorry.” She bowed her in shame first, but then she raised her face again and looked at the two girls. “I feel so guilty for being fooled and played in a way that I hurt my friends.”

Marinette swallowed. Hard. She felt tears come to her eyes. Why this felt so hard? She expected to be happy? She wanted to forgive them. It was not their fault. Really. It wasn’t. But she felt hurt by them. She was giving it a lot of thought until she had an idea.

Hannah did not know what to say. She was not attacked nor threatened by any other classmate but Lila. She did not expect anyone to defend her. She did not feel hurt by them. It was only Lila and she was not there. There were misunderstandings, but there were going to be more.

“I’m okay Alya.” Marinette spoke after a long pause. “And I think you punished yourself sufficiently by publishing that interview with Lila in the first place.” She giggled, smiled and looked at Alya. “Have you put it down?”

“No, actually, but I have changed the introductory text, now it is a testimony to her fraud and her lies.” Alya explained. “But I’m sorry for not trusting you, I thought you were just jealous.” The girl wanted to add ‘like when Chloe wanted to kiss Adrien on that school film set’ but let it go.

“I’m sorry.” A chorus of voices followed.

Marinette made a small nod. She smiled at them, it was as if she told them ‘you made yourselves look lie fools, you’re punished enough’.

“I knew she was lying once, when she said she was certain that Hannah stole your phone and went to the locker room. Hannah, I knew you never left.” Mylenne spoke next.

“Yeah, me too.” Ivan added. “But that one lie did not mean everything else was a lie.” The boy shrugged. “I guess we just got used to her.”

“And that ‘someone messed up with my worksheets’ excuse was really annoying.” Kim noted.

“I fell stupid for not checking facts she told us, but they never seemed relevant for me to bother.” Max admitted sheepishly. “Not even the serviette incident.”

Nathaniel opened his sketchpad and showed everyone a few drawings of Lila as a villain and smiled.

“How long have you known?” Alya frowned and demanded.

“I just draw her face. She looks like a villain sometimes.” The boy shrugged.

“I thought she was cool because she was a model and had a shoot with Adrien.” Juleka muttered.

“And I dream about visiting Achu and prince Ali one day, she was there … she said she was there … she wasn’t really? Right?” Rose piped in.

“Can’t really prove that she was, no.” Max adjusted his glasses.

They quickly listed all the Lies they could remember, and there were many.

“So, what is going to happen to her? She did steal Ladybug’s earrings.” Alya asked Sabrina.

“The police wants to talk to her, but she is a minor and her mother is a diplomat. I don’t know.” The girl shrugged. Her father was rather frustrated by the whole ordeal. She remembered how she was worried that her father was going to get akumatized again because of how agitated he was.

Hannah and Marinette chatted quietly on the side when everyone looked at the two of them. They wanted more juice on Lila and they were suddenly aware where most of it could come from. But the two girls resisted joining in.

“Why don’t we switch the subject. Who brought what for picnic?” Nino cut in. He was not going to force the girls to admit how they were threatened by Lila. The problem was probably resolved and there was no need to stick to the gloomy subject, it was much better to focus on the picnic.


	71. Picnic for Hannah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class goes for a picnic and is determined to learn something about their new classmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to all the Alya fans, the goal is not to make her look bad!  
> Thee is a hidden trigger in the text, death is not really mentioned but implied.

Picnic for Hannah or Hannah for Picnic?

The tournament started, they observed a few duels and cheered and Adrien and Kagami were free to go. It was a much larger event, but their colleagues had very brief appearance at a designated hour. Adrien and Kagami both strolled over to the group of classmates.

Alya learned from Max and Sabrina just how many videos and photos were available on the internet where they managed to identify their new classmate and became seriously interested in the subject, so much so, that she was ready to make slight modifications for their picnic arrangements.

The two fencers stood side by side and received praise and congratulations as they won a duel each. Marinette felt a slight pang of jealousy when she noticed their joined hands and smiley faces. But that meant Adrien was happy, and she decided to be happy about that.

It still hurt. It was like the scarf, but worse. She felt someone tug on her sleeve. She turned around and saw Luka. The same boy who already let her cry her eyes out. He stood a few metres away, smiled and looked at the fencers, not her. But it was Hannah who was tugging her sleeve.

The two girls quickly found a subject to chat about. Marinette was explaining how they were about to go to the Trocadero where Alix and Kim always had some kind of competition and how she sometimes even made flags for that.

“Trocadero, right, let’s all go and have a picnic.” Alya called over the noise.

“You are joining us?” Nino inquired the two fencers. “It is a party for Hannah.” He added more quietly.

“Apparently, I can have a photo shoot with my father’s muse only on the premisses of the Italian embassy so the fitting was cancelled.” Adrien smiled widely.

“So Lila is in house arrest?” Kagami inquired.

“Sort of. If she comes out, my father would like to talk to her. And Sabrina’s father, of course.” Chloe scoffed. Sabrina nodded on her side. “Come on, let’s go. You all might have all day since you had taken the metro, but my limousine is picking me up in time for dinner.”

With the blonde heiress leading the way, the rest of the class quickly formed a group and walked on. Marinette was busy explaining all the details from her last afternoon with the girls and what they normally did there.

Alix was putting on the rollers while Kim stretched. The two of them were going to race to the designated picnic spot, chosen by Max and Markov, for a special display. Marinette was not sure what it was. There must have been some special occasion that she had missed.

They group arrived at the Trocadero and spread a blanket. It was a place in the shade with a portion of a wall nearby. Kim and Alix were bickering about who won, until a switch of the subject was everyone’s desire.

“Tell us something about yourself Hannah.” Alya decided to open a can of worms. “You told a few things while you were akumatized.”

Hannah felt cold shivers sink down her spine.

“Max and Markov found you on several videos on the internet and even more photos.” Alya continued.

They were sitting in a shade and not in the sun for a reason. Markov projected an image on a nearby wall.

“I should warn you that some of this images are distressing.” Markov recited.

Hannah looked at her hands.

The image on the wall did not have clear colours but it was possible to distinguish people and buildings.

It showed a lot of people shouting, singing, carrying banners and some of them showed peace signs. Then they showed an army tank. And then there were girls in pretty dresses and flowers in their hair. They lined up in front of a tank. Markov encircled face of one of the girls.

“Is this you Hannah?” He asked.

“Yes.” She confirmed. “These were the protests, against the war.”

Then the video changed.

It clearly showed Hannah. She filled a bottle with something and added a piece of cloth and a cork.

“What are you doing?” Nino frowned.

“According to my data, Hannah is making a Molotov cocktail.” Max replied.

“Aren’t cocktails with hard liquor?” Rose frowned.

“This is not for drinking.” Hannah shook her head.

Later the video showed an adult who lit up the cloth on a similar bottle and threw it at a tank.

“Wow, Hannah, you have to teach me how to make those.” Alix gleamed.

“Not on my watch.” Sabrina crossed her arms.

“I have assembled the video material with all the links on the videos on the internet.” Markov reported.

Then the video changed. It was much higher quality and it showed something that resembled a hospital interior, but the beds were stuck in a hallway.

“My parents worked in a hospital.” Hannah spoke. “When the hospital was hit many times, they moved the hospital into a basement.” She took in a breath. “We moved into a basement.”

The video showed scenes from a hospital. One face was surrounded by a square.

“Is this you?” Alya asked.

Hannah nodded. She stared at the screen with her eyes opened wide.

“This was not taken by a news crew nor a mobile phone, this is a proper film camera.” Max explained.

“Are you cleaning that guy’s wound?” Kim exclaimed.

Ondine covered her eyes.

Several other kids turned away from the screen.

“Yes, that was my neighbour. My father sewed him back up.” Hannah smiled weakly.

“You mean stitched up.” Adrien smiled.

“Yes … that.” She made a move with her hands like her father did when stitching up.

Then the video changed.

“And this?” Alya asked again as Markov played another video.

“I distributed food and collected empty dishes. This woman could not use her hands so I fed her.” Hannah shrugged.

“There are hours of material like that.” Markov warned.

And then there were questions.

“What else did you do?”

“Did you see someone die?”

“Did you kill someone?”

Hannah looked lost. She explained the actions in the videos and avoided mentioning herself but the questions she got were a bit too much. The eyes of her curious classmates were all on her. This was not a math problem to solve, she was expected to talk about herself.

The video on the screen changed, there was complete chaos and one could only see many people running through the air filled with dust. Then one could see destroyed sides of buildings and something that probably used to be a street.

“come on! Stop this right now! Just stop!” Marinette jumped to her feet determinedly.

Hannah put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. Adrien covered her hands with his and brought her closer.

When everyone was silenced, Marinette turned around and hugged Hannah.

“They stopped, it is okay.” Marinette whispered.

“Can you stop the video too, Markov, please?” Adrien asked.

The video was showing Hannah pressing chest on a boy her age. It was stuck on that image.

“Was that him?” Marinette whispered.

Hannah nodded.

“That was your friend?” Adrien asked.

Hannah nodded.

Markov turned off the projector.

“It is gone, you can look, we are all here, alive and well.” Marinette whispered.

Adrien could not talk.

Most of the teens around had tears in their eyes.

“Don’t do this to her, okay?” Marinette asked everyone around.

“I’m sorry Hannah.” Markov floated over.

“I’m sorry.” Max added.

“Would you like me to play a happy video?” Markov asked.

Hannah nodded.

Markov was searching through his database and played the video on a small screen for Max to check.

“This one looks nice.” Max confirmed. “At least 86 percent of viewers claim it brings a good mood.

The video showed a classroom in a tent.

Young students sat at desks and copied numbers in their notebooks.

Hannah smiled.

And then the camera turned towards the teacher. Lines that formed a square surrounded the teacher’s face. The teacher was really small.

“Are you teaching?” Alix shouted.

“I was teaching when teacher got ill.” Hannah nodded. Then she crawled over to the projection and pointed. “My brothers.” She smiled.

“I have another happy video.” Markov announced.

“Let me see.” Max insisted.

“You were teaching your brothers?” Adrien smiled widely.

“I can’t make Chris sit still for five minutes unless I give him a gaming controller.” Nino pouted.

“Ella and Etta got akumatized because they were expected to go to bed.” Alya frowned.

“We had only school.” Hannah shrugged.

“Was Hannah camping?” Kim asked while the screen showed more tents.

Ondine frowned at him.

Alix smacked the boy on his shoulder.

The video on the wall showed tents and tents and then some more tents.

“Yes.” Hannah laughed. “We were camping for a few months last autumn.”

Everybody looked at her.

“It sounds much better.” Marinette agreed.

“Little white lies.” Alya muttered.

The next video showed Hannah in the same tent, but this time someone else was teaching. The teacher looked like an older teenage girl. Then they showed the actual teacher teaching something else.

Hannah was watching silently and her classmates stopped asking questions because she was not answering.

“Hannah, come over.” Marinette nudged the girl. Adrien got on his feet and Hannah followed him.

“Come over here.” She stood in the sun and away from that hidden place they were sitting at.

“You are here, in Paris. It is safe here.” Marinette explained.

Hannah took a few steps and then turned around and smiled.

Adrien, oh so casually, threw his arm around Marinette’s shoulders and enjoyed the fact that she blushed.

“Is she going to be okay?” Luka inquired.

“She is brave and strong girl if she was able to go through all that.” Kagami stated.

“Markov, you said you had hours of that material.” They all heard Alya talking. “do you think I could make a documentary about Hannah.”

“Back off Alya.” Marinette groaned.

“Actually.” Markov started to speak. “About 60 percent of the videos are from news crews, then there are parts of documentaries, so it is all licensed.”

“Ugh.” Alya was not happy. “But I could make an interview with Hannah about all her experiences.”

“Alya, no!” Four voices spoke in unison.

“Babe, let the girl be. You saw how stressful it was for her.” Nino put an arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders.

“But, it would be such a nice and positive story and finally a story about a girl worthy of attention and … “ Alya rambled.

“She doesn’t appreciate that kind of attention, Alya.” Kagami warned, and it was scary.

The class decided they saw enough. Chloe left for her limousine while the rest of the group walked.

They strolled along the Seine on their way home. The sun was lower and the surface of the river glowed.

“I … “ Hannah spoke quietly. “I never killed anyone.”

“Good.” Marinette smiled.

“Huh.” Kagami huffed. It came out as if she sounded disappointed, but she was mostly surprised by herself.

“Why? Have you?” Marinette teased.

“No, but my mother insists teaching about this warriors and it never occurred to me what it actually meant, to be in a war, I mean.” Kagami spoke out loud.

“Your mother is thinking about honourable war with distinguished samurai warrior who fought, while the civilians lived their nice and happy lives.” Luka teased.

“You worked in a hospital?” Adrien asked quietly. He was thinking about family businesses. Work in a bakery looked like fun. Being in fashion business looked glamorous, but it was far less fun than people assumed. But he dreaded what Hannah had learned about her family trade, and how early.

“I started by helping with the food.” Hannah shrugged. It was the perfect job because she would then get a meal to share with her brothers. “And other things, when there was a lot of work, too much.” Then she went silent.

“Chloe called last night, and this morning. Apparently she watched the whole playlist through the night.” Sabrina spoke carefully.

“You can all watch. Just don’t ask me about it.” Hannah muttered.

“That’s fair.” Luka concluded.

“I can’t.” Adrien smiled. “Chloe already sent few links to me. The security system installed in the mansion decided that the content would be too distressing for me. I thought Chloe just made an error with the link. She told me she didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And everything was fine until it wasn't.


	72. Steering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila has to deal with the consequences.  
> The rest of the kids enjoy a walk home.  
> Until ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The break before the storm.

Steering

Lila was angry. All her efforts were for nothing. Her mother told her they were leaving Paris. The girl strived to make herself even more angry. She replayed the events of last night in her head. But the violet butterfly was not coming.

“What is it Hawk Moth? Are you sleeping all day.” She muttered while she walked angrily up and down her room. She needed that violet butterfly, she was going to destroy those two girls and they were going to return her back to school, class, Adrien and all her glory.

Mme Rossi was preoccupied with completely different issues. Yes, it was possible for her to change her post and move away from Paris, the idea was even encouraged by the local government (read mayor Bourgeois) as that would move Lila away from the reach of the violet butterflies.

But it was in the interest of the international affairs that Lila cooperated with local authorities, she was told to make her daughter talk to the police and then move, preferably to the Lyon consulate, so it did not look that they were hiding the culprit from the French authorities.

“That is pure surrender, we have to leave Paris but stay within the jurisdiction of the French police?” The woman was incredulous. She was not settling down for such acts of kindness, she was done being kind, her daughter was portrayed as a monster by the media. She was done being nice.

“Lila, darling, it is in our best interest to go to the police and give our statements. That way we will cooperate and we can demand to stay in Paris. You can go back to your school and everything will be cleared up.” Mme Rossi proposed to her daughter.

Lila schooled herself in a record time, but the pure hatred and evil was hiding behind her eyes. “Of course maman, I just want to clear my name.” Lila cried out. She had already practised her statement, the same claim she already gave to Alya last night.

Mme Rossi spent the rest of the day negotiating, and finally she got her deal, the woman and her daughter were going to be allowed to stay in the embassy and receive additional care to prevent them from getting akumatized if the Parisian authorities approve of the plan.

Mme Rossi decided to take the embassy car to go to the police station. She sat in the back seat with a lawyer while Lila had chosen to sit in the front seat, next to the driver.

Marinette kept talking to Hannah, she felt guilty for what her classmates did. Mylenne and Alix stepped in from time to time. Rose and Juleka patiently waited for their turn to talk to their new classmate. Nino kept himself busy by keeping Alya from interrogating the girl.

“Hey Marinette.” A familiar voice greeted as soon as Hannah was busy talking to another classmate.

“Hi Adrien.” She smiled a bit to widely and waved her hands (that also carried a large paper bag with a few necessities for the picnic and the large bag started to swing violently). She tried to steady it, but it was Adrien who caught the bag and took it from her.

“Um, so, about last night.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

Marinette deflated. Last night she admitted to be in love with him and the boy was not opposed to the idea. But he also did not profess his eternal and endless and undying love back to her. Did he change his mind and decided that her stalker-ish nature was freaking him out?

Wait! He told her he felt the same about her and Kagami. But maybe he was wrong? Maybe she was wrong? What was going on? He was speaking? Of course he was. He was talking to her and she was somewhere else, in her own mind, she was staring at the boy and not listening.

Adrien leaned really close to Marinette and whispered. “I feel like I could tell you anything right now and you wouldn’t even remember because your mind is not here.” He teased and smirked. Of course she blushed and of course he laughed about it, softly and with a kind and appreciative look.

“I asked you what were you doing last night, during the akuma attack.” The boy looked at her from the side and observed her face carefully. Of course, she first paled, then he saw panic, then he knew that the wheels in her head were turning. Here was it. A little white lie to cover for her absence.

“So did you run home?” He asked casually the moment she opened her mouth to speak. She closed her mouth. “Did you run away and hide?” He added while he observed her reaction. “And when did you return?”

“I … um … I did run home.” She admitted. She sounded like a coward. She bowed her head in shame. “While you tried to get Ladybug’s earrings from Lila.” She did run away, after ladybug earrings were taken from her, she had to hide her identity and get the other miraculous.

“So, you did not come back to the centre until the fight was over?” He raised his eyebrows.

“No.” She shook her head and looked to the side away from him.

“Really?” He leaned in even closer.

“No I was … I wasn’t .. “ She flailed her hands. “I … um … I always run away when there is an akuma fight.” She was finally speaking. “Yes, I always run away and Alya is really annoyed by that because I never join her in her video chases for the Ladyblog.” She was rambling and walked awkwardly.

Adrien laughed softly. Her attitude was very similar to her behaviour in the wax museum, just after she tried to kiss him when she thought he was a wax statue, of him. That whole day was awkward, but now that he knew, he could not wipe away the smile from his face at the memory.

“So, um, you tried to go after Lila for the earrings while the akuma was just there?” Marinette wanted to switch the subject, desperately, and the boy was just looking at her with a knowing smile while she rambled her excuses for her absence the night before.

“Yes!” He exclaimed proudly as if he got them in the end. He did get them in the end. But was not able to say that, because he was Chat Noir at the time. He deflated slightly, but the smile was still there. “But … “ But if he said he did not get them it would have been a lie.

“That was … very brave?” Marinette squealed. Why was it so hard for her to give a compliment to this boy. It was probably reckless and dangerous, with all things considered, the akuma and Hawk Moth and Mayura on the scene just moments later. And he was just a civilian.

“Yeah.” Adrien actually blushed at the praise.

“Were you in trouble with your father?” Marinette was looking at her feet again. It bothered her, if Gabriel punished Adrien for loosing a book by pulling the boy from school, what was going to happen about the date. But he was there, at the fencing, so it was a good sign.

“Maybe a little. I guess Lila draw his wrath too. It is just … “ He suddenly stopped talking. Marinette looked at him. “My father, he told me if I get a miraculous, I should give it to him.” He spoke quietly. “You know, because I don’t know the identity of the heroes.”

Marinette froze in place. Her eyes were staring at the boy, but he could see the wheels turning inside her head.

“Particularly Ladybug’s earrings and Chat Noir’s ring.” Adrien repeated absent mindedly. He fiddled with the ring on his right hand. “And I should bring them to the mansion for safe keeping.”

“Okay, I was afraid you’d get into trouble … like after the book and everything..” Marinette muttered.

“Yeah.” Adrien was thinking.

“Safe … “Marinette needed to think, but Adrien’s eyes were trained at her so she could not, she blushed and her mind was somewhere else, a place she was constantly running away from.

Adrien felt the dots were there to connect them, he just needed one more dot.

“It is not that safe, the safe, I mean, even I broke into it once.” Adrien smiled. “And I took a book and got pulled out from school.” He smiled so warmly, her brain was sleep deprived, tired and a boy was just there smiling at her.

“Hey, you two, we have to go home and take over our shifts with the little monsters.” Alya greeted.

“See you later dude, Marinette.” Nino greeted and the couple walked away, hand in hand.

“It is so nice to see them back together again.” Adrien smiled after his friends.

“Yeah.” Marinette breathed out while her heart pounded, she wanted to be together like that, with the boy by her side, but she knew she could not, at least not like that.

They looked at each other for a moment, confused. They were talking about something before they got interrupted, but none of them was able to pick up the thread.

“Hannah, are you and your brothers going to be alone this evening?” Marinette changed the subject.

“Mother is going into a shift in an hour. Papa should return a few hours later.” Hannah replied.

“Why don’t you ask your father for another sleepover?” Marinette smiled. “It is not a school night.”

“Another sleepover?” Adrien teased. But he looked up dreamily, if only he was allowed to have sleepovers.

Hannah typed away a message to her father.

“Sometimes he can’t answer for hours.” Hannah put away her phone.

It was rather normal for Adrien, his father barely communicated with him, that was the reason to have Nathalie. But even she took her time sometimes. However, he did meet Hannah’s father, and the mad did not seem distant and not interested in his children.

Kagami was well aware of the well scheduled times of the day when her mother was unavailable due to exercise or meditation or whatever other activity she pursued that did not approve the use of a mobile phone.

“Why?” Luka asked. He knew that his mother was always there for him. Marinette kept silent. She could not remember a single moment when she was not able to get her parents on the phone.

“He’s in surgery.” Hannah stated as if that was completely obvious.

Suddenly, the excuse of her father to be absent and unattainable looked far more acceptable than any of his father’s excuses.

“And your mother?” Luka inquired.

“She would not let me.” Hannah shrugged. It was just the way she was. But her mother was leaving for a night shift and if her father said yes, she was going to be fine.

It was time for the group to disperse. Nathaniel and Marc walked away first. Then Adrien got a message that his bodyguard was sent after him. Then Luka put Kagami on his bicycle and waved the rest of the group away.

Adrien waved the class as they strolled away on the side of the Seine. He saw how his classmates left the group one by one and could see Marinette with pigtails and a smaller girl, definitely Hannah, by her side.

His driver arrived and picked him up. But the cars in the street were stuck. There was some kind of a traffic jam and his bodyguard stopped on the side to check what was the issue with the traffic and inform Nathalie about the issue over the phone.

Adrien watched the crossing, it wasn’t very far. He got out from the car just like his driver did on the opposite side. He felt restless, and in need to run, as if he anticipated something was going to happen. He watched two girls approach the light to cross the street.

There, in the distance, he saw the car from the opposite direction and the setting sun lit the person on the front passenger seat. It was Lila. Even from a distance he could see the pure evil in her eyes. One quick glance around, he ducked and transformed, hidden from view by the car and its open door.

Marinette and Hannah were completely consumed in their own world, whatever they were talking about, or even only thinking about, because it did not look like there was much conversation going on. One could not say with certainty if they even checked the light before they stepped in the street. All the cars were stopped on their side.

Lila saw her chance. She swung her leg and hit the gas pedal over the foot of the driver. The rubber of the tyres produced noise, but the car was flying over the crossing. The two girls on the curb were not even looking. Lila was disappointed, she wanted them to see her face before they got hit.

But someone dressed in all black grabbed them and jumped. He pushed his feet off from the front of the car, then from the hood, he was running over the car and carried them away, to safety. Lila turned around and screamed. The driver finally pushed her away and hit the brake.

“What was that?” Marinette asked first. She was so surprised by being grabbed by Chat Noir that she did not turn around towards the car in time to see who was inside. The rest of the car windows were too dark to see through.

“That very diplomatic classmate of yours.” Chat was not hiding the venom in his voice.

“Lila?” Hannah asked. She was still thinking that Lila needed psychological help and this was just another proof of that for her.

“Yes, her.” He confirmed coldly. “Why don’t I take you two to _chat_ in safety.” The superhero was in front of a bakery in no time. He vaulted away after his signature two finger salute greeting. He had to return to the car.

Yes, his bodyguard noticed that the boy was missing, no he did not ask a thing.

But the boy was shifting in the back seat for the whole way beck to the Agreste mansion.

“What is it kid?” Plagg muttered the question.

“I should have stayed there to protect them when Lila becomes akumatized again.” Adrien muttered through his teeth. The traffic was slow and it did not become easier due to Lila’s stunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will take more chapters to actually get Lila akumatized again, but the next few are not going to be easy.


	73. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking about secrets, (unintentionally) pushing others to reveal secrets, and finally revealing secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary is stupid.

Secrets

“That was my secret.” Hannah whispered to Marinette as if there was someone listening (and there was, but the tiny goddess of creation was happily nibbling on a pink macaron in her hidden shelter). Both girls were seated on the chairs in front of the sewing station.

“What was your secret?” Marinette was confused. They spent the last half an hour over the last sewing project and she was explaining about making a secret signature sewn in into each item she made.

“The boy I tried to resuscitate.” Hannah pressed both palms one over the other in front of her as if she was doing it. “I tried to save him.” She muttered. “I failed.”

“You tried. At least you tried. I wouldn’t even know how.” Marinette felt disturbed by only remembering the image. How many times had Chat disappeared and she brought him back to live by using her miraculous magic.

“I guess I did not know either. I just saw my parents do it.” Hannah breathed out.

But bringing Chat back was different, it was one moment of terror and it was magic that did it. Perhaps she could look at manual CPR as a form of magic?

“How long did you … ?” Marinette pressed her hands in front of her.

“Until they pulled me away. I don’t know.” The other girl shrugged.

That was long, to look at the body of your dead friend and to try to bring him back but fail, that was really long.

“I did the breathing too.” Hannah admitted.

That must have been awful. But Marinette kissed Chat Noir to get him back from the spell of the Evil Cupid. It must have been a similar feeling. Except Hannah did not bring her friend back. That was definitely awful.

“Papa said he was injured too badly.” The other girl muttered to herself. “Mother said my lungs were too weak.”

“I’m sure you would have saved him if it was possible.” Marinette whispered.

Hannah clutched onto the piece of fabric she was holding and it wrinkled, but none of the girls cared. It was important to stay calm, none of them wanted a violet butterfly to pop in for a visit. So Hannah straightened up and looked into her friend’s face.

“Why don’t we finish this? I need something to do.” Hannah proposed.

She did not need to say that twice.

Half an hour later, the project was finished and the girls observed the final product. It was a t-shirt for Hannah, but the girl only learned about that when Marinette told her to try it out.

Tom knocked and opened the hatch door.

“Hannah, your father is here, he is taking your brothers back to your flat, but you can stay. Do you want to come down and say hello?” The large man asked with a huge smile.

Hannah stumbled down the sitars but landed on her feet.

“No wonder they became friends.” Sabine smiled to her husband as they watched the girl jump on her father.

“papa!” She shouted. “How was your day?”

“Could have been better.” The man muttered. “There was a girl, just like you.” He sniffed and hugged her tightly.

“Listen, the kids already had their dinner, why don’t you stay a little for a meal and a talk?” Sabine proposed. Hannah was sent back to the room upstairs where Marinette set out their stitch work to continue on the lesson from the last sleepover.

The man was soon seated and a warm meal helped him open up. Sabine and Tom listened to a horrid story with at least a hopeful ending, if the girl pulls through the night. The man thanked them for listening and the food, he needed both equally. He admitted that he usually talked to his daughter after his shift.

Adrien seldom had the time to think, to do nothing but contemplate over a subject. He knew there was something wrong with the way his father requested him to give him any miraculous he stumbled upon, but he had no time to actually think about it.

Now, he was alone in the car, but he occupied his mind with worries about Hannah and Marinette if Lila got akumatized again (and that was something he was constantly afraid of ever since the night before, when he discovered that the akuma was in fact Lila’s mother).

The car finally arrived to the large gates.

“You’re late.” Gabriel noted coldly while he sat at the table.

Eating more than one meal per day with his father was a rare occasion indeed. But the man did not look any better than in the morning. His clothes were neatly arranged and his hair was not tilted, but his face looked as if the man aged for a few years.

Gabriel sensed Lila’s anger, he sensed the frustration of her mother, both were strong, but he refused to use them as an akuma again. He was tired and needed rest, but their agitation kept him restless and annoyed himself. So annoyed that he failed to notice anyone else who might have made a good akuma.

“I’m sorry father, the traffic was really slow.” Adrien replied quietly and sat at the table.

“Nathalie told me.” The man picked on his food.

Adrien wanted to ask his father why did he scold him then, but he let go of it. He did not want another argument with his father. He wanted to deal with the piano recital, transform and roam around the bakery and wait for the next akuma form of Lila Rossi.

“What were you and your friends doing today?” Gabriel asked offhandedly. Yes, there were few photos on the social media, Nathalie followed that and informed her boss, but there was nothing specific.

“I won my duel today, father.” Adrien stated proudly.

“Of course. Go on.” Gabriel encouraged impatiently, he was informed about that already.

“Kagami won her duel too.” The boy continued.

“Yes, of course, go on.” The man practices patience and chewed his food.

“We went with my friends and classmates to the Trocadero.” Adrien continued.

“Yes?” Gabriel knew that much already. “And what did you do there.”

“We watched different videos that Max’s robot Markov dug out from the internet. They all feature my new classmate, Hannah.” The boy explained.

“Okay, so she made a lot of videos of herself?” The man raised an eyebrow, was that girl an attention seeker like Lila?

“No, she probably did not know about most of them, they were taken by other people with their phones, news crews, documentary filming crew … “ Adrien tried to remember. “Actually I’m certain she was not aware of being filmed most of the time.”

“So she is famous?” Gabriel inquired. Being related to someone famous was usually good for the fashion business.

“No, father, she is not, and I doubt she ever wants to be, at least not like that.” Adrien replied.

“We have found that classmate of yours that you proposed, Juleka, acceptable. Nathalie will contact her to see how soon can she be visually transformed to fit the image we seek.” Gabriel continued rather harshly. The man hated to be proven wrong.

“Yes, father.” Adrien replied calmly. He wanted to smile from ear to ear, this was a huge success, he was going to model with Juleka in place of Lila, he wanted to invite the whole class for the photo shoot. It was going to be so much fun. There were a few moments of quiet.

“So, what did those videos show?” Gabriel inquired.

“Hannah was surviving a was and ... most of the time she was helping out her parents.” Adrien concluded that mentioning activities such as ‘ _joining protests and making improvised weapons_ ’ would not fare well with his father.

“I see.” Gabriel put another piece of food in his mouth.

Nathalie walked in the room, greeted Adrien and gave Gabriel a pointed look. She was persuading Gabriel to talk to Adrien more for some time and the events from the last akuma attacks somehow served as the last nudge in that direction.

“So what do her parents do?” Gabriel asked casually. It was a logical continuation of their conversation.

“Her parents are doctors, medical doctors.” Adrien felt like he had to explain everything. “And they were in a war and short on staff. So Hannah helped prepare meals and fed patients and she was even changing bandages and helped clean up their wounds and … “ The boy was crying.

Nathalie had a completely blank look on her face, even more than usual, as if she was baffled by what she just heard. Gabriel gaped like a fish, the last piece of salad he put in his mouth was hanging off his lower lip.

“And one video … one video showed her when she was trying to resuscitate her friend! She was … she was pressing … “ He put both his hands over his breast bone. The two adults gaped, frozen in place, that was not what they expected to hear.

“Father I … I’m sometimes unhappy when you pull me out from school or my friends to do photo shoots, and I did not like doing that with Lila.” The boy felt sufficiently safe to admit to that. “But when I saw that … I just … “

Then there was a moment of silence. Adrien gave up on explaining himself, how his own troubles looked trivial compared to that. Gabriel finished his piece of salad. Nathalie gave him a pointed look. The man shook his head and returned his attention to Adrien.

“Why don’t you play the piano for me, Adrien. It is time for me to check up on your progress there.” The man replied coldly. The he returned the look to Nathalie that communicated something like ‘later’. The woman resigned and walked away.

Adrien played the melody to the best of his abilities. But he knew his performance was poor. First of all, he wasn’t feeling it. It was a piece that fit his father’s taste, and the boy just could not get himself into the right mood to play such a cold melody.

Technically, he was lacking too, because playing the tune on the stereo instead of actually practising it can only get you so far. Therefore, the boy played and expected to be scolded afterwards.

“Your performance was below my expectations.” Gabriel concluded sternly.

“I’m really sorry father. I wish I could do it better.” Adrien replied.

“And you will, you will practice it until it get it done perfectly.” The man scolded.

“Yes father.” The boy confirmed timidly.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“Do you wish to help me with my business more than just doing the modelling?” Gabriel inquired. He observed the boy with piercing eyes, but did not find anything to be dissatisfied with. His reaction was entirely what he expected. There was confusion, some fear and anticipation.

“I was never good at designing stuff, that’s what you told me before.” Adrien spoke quietly. “And for the business side, you told me I was too young and everything was confidential.” He did not want to dismiss his father, he was grateful for the opportunity, did that mean he was ready?

“I was thinking of something else. Something more important to this family.” The man observed his son quietly. “Do you think you could handle the pressure like your young classmate had? Would you be able to keep a cool head and persist when lives are at stake.”

“Yes father.” Adrien replied without any cadence in his tone, he was still timid from the scolding for his piano performance and yet of course he was ready to take the responsibility, he was Chat Noir. Of course he was ready. Like he was born ready.

“Come into my office, then.” Gabriel said before he turned around and walked out from the room. He left the boy alone for a moment and knew he would follow later.

“I have a bad feeling about this, kid.” Plagg muttered.

“My father is letting me in. Shush Plagg.” Adrien threw a piece of Camembert in the air and Plagg swallowed it whole. “Besides, I’m taking you with me.”

“Yeah, nothing goes wrong when I’m around.” Plagg muttered.

Adrien patted his shirt and Plagg was hiding inside before the boy walked out from his room and went towards his father’s office. He glanced towards his phone, switched off on his desk as required by his father for the piano recital, and the phone was left there.

Gabriel was waiting in front of the portrait of his wife.

“I’m glad to finally show you this. Your friend’s parents are not the only ones trying to save a life. Come closer.” The man invited Adrien to step really close to him. Adrien turned towards the painting. Then Gabriel raised his hands and Adrien watched in awe while the man behind him pressed the buttons hidden in the painting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know where they are going.


	74. The Living Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel gives a tour of his lair to Adrien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops, they're there.

The Living Dead

The moment the floor below him started to descend, Adrien knew he was not going for a nice experience. He regretted the moment he agreed to go with his father. There was nothing good waiting for him at the end of that line.

They stopped and the lights switched on at the voice command. Gabriel was already walking away over a metal bridge that lead to a well lit object at the other end of the large cavern. Water washed below him and he found the noise soothing and threatening at the same time.

The boy could not see the object right in front of them because of his tall father who walked before him, but he saw the plants around and admired the hidden garden. It must have been something his mother had created. She loved plants, the garden around the mansion was also her creation.

“I could use your help with this son.” Gabriel spoke. “I’m sure you’ll agree she’s worth our effort.” He continued. “Because we have to bring her back to life.” The man stood aside. And there, right if front of Adrien, was his mother, in a transparent capsule.

“Mother?” He whispered. Then he walked closer. He watched, petrified, for a moment, he might have forgotten how to breathe. Then he moved, one more step and his hands hovered above the transparent surface. Then he finally set his palms and his fingers on the glass.

“She is … is she alive?” The boy spoke weakly.

“She is … if the doctors, like the parents of your classmate, ever saw her, they would have said that she had died. But I know there is life in her. Just look at her.” Gabriel replied with such admiration, determination and energy that could only be seen in a mad man (if they spoke about dead wives).

“So … she is d… “ Adrien needed to hear the conclusion. He needed to know. He assumed, well he felt it, he knew it at the bottom of his heart that his mother had died, because he refused to believe that she just left him.

“No! She is not dead!” Gabriel snarled.

“But how … “ Adrien trailed off. He was unable to speak. The shock of the information presented before him was too overwhelming.

“I’ll show you!” Gabriel cut him off. He walked away to another room, adjacent to this one.

Adrien followed his father on an autopilot. His father had gone mad. That must have been it. His mother was dead and he had gone nuts, he refused to accept the facts and lost all touch with reality. Well, that was nothing new for artists, but this was rather extreme.

It took a few precious moments for Adrien to take in the next space him and his father walked into. There were butterflies. White butterflies. And they fluttered around his father. He took his time in silence. He recognized the butterflies, he saw them leaving his lady’s yoyo.

Was his father somehow collecting the butterflies that were cleansed by Ladybug? His mind constructed something, anything, as an excuse for what was just before his very eyes, because he refused to believe what was the most obvious and logical conclusion.

Gabriel sensed his son’s distress. That was expected. The boy was saddened when he saw his mother, now he was confused. There was no anger, no emotion that would discourage Gabriel from proceeding. He opened his jacket and a purple kwami flew out.

Adrien gasped. He was appropriately surprised by seeing a kwami. Gabriel was satisfied with his reaction.

“If we get Chat Noir’s ring and Ladybug’s earrings, I can make a wish to have your mother alive and well.” Gabriel spoke solemnly.

Adrien stared at his father. He looked at the kwami and then looked back at his father. Yes, the conclusion was obvious, but he refused to believe it, he refused to accept it.

“Don’t you miss her? Do you want your mother back Adrien?” Gabriel inquired. But he did not wait for an answer. “I know you do, I see how you sit in the garden and watch her statue sometimes.”

Adrien wanted to protest at first, but he actually nodded at the last statement. He did want her back, that was the point where he wanted to start the conversation, but not that way.

“She can be brought back, using the miraculous of Chat Noir and Ladybug, she can be back here, with us.” Gabriel continued.

Adrien shook his head in protest.

“Yes, she can! I’m telling you! She can be brought back!” Gabriel snarled.

Adrien took a step back. He felt Plagg scratch his chest under his shirt. He wanted to transform right then and there and snatch that pin from his father. His eyes flicked over his father, but he did not see the pin. It was hidden somewhere.

“Even now, I can feel Lila on the other side of the city. She hates Ladybug and Chat Noir so much. She will get their miraculous for me.” The man was ready to transform.

“No.” Adrien shouted. “No she won’t.” He added. Why was he shouting? He was supposed to transform and go after his father and snatch the pin. But that was his father who stood before him and he had no idea where the pin was hidden. If he transformed and shredded all his clothes? But then he could hurt his father.

“He’s right. You have little control over her. She might use the miraculous herself.” A feminine voice spoke from behind Adrien.

The boy felt his world was sinking.

Nathalie walked into the room and observed the scene.

“She will bring me the miraculous. I am sure of that.” Gabriel grinned wickedly. “She will get what she wants in return.” He turned towards the blonde boy and looked at him with his cold eyes.

Adrien stared back at his father. He knew what Lila wanted. Lila wanted him, as a prize, not as a person, he was something to show off, a famous person by her side as a confirmation of all the lies she ever made about meeting famous people.

“Lila is already helping me to get our family back together, Adrien.” Gabriel almost towered above the boy. “Are you ready to do what your classmate did? Are you able to act and not just wait for everything to be delivered to you?”

Adrien was ready to act, but not in a way his father expected him to. However, with Nathalie there, he felt outnumbered and he also felt Plagg was signalling him not to transform.

“Nathalie?” The boy spoke her name as a question and as a plea. He still did not want this to be true. He wanted her to tell him this was some silly prank. He turned towards the woman and observed her. She must have been Mayura. And then he saw her kwami.

“I would do anything for your father, Adrien. You know that.” Nathalie answered solemnly.

Then he saw the brooch, shaped as a peacock. If he transformed, right then, perhaps he had a chance to snatch one miraculous, not both. He was far less impulsive while not transformed, or at least while his father was watching him.

“If you got those earrings from Lila we would have been half way there.” Gabriel continued. He never missed an opportunity to make his son feel like a failure. “Or if you let her bring them to me.”

Adrien shuddered.

“Did your father tell you how your mother turned that way, Adrien?” Nathalie inquired.

Adrien shook his head.

“It was her who used the peacock miraculous before.” Gabriel spoke.

Adrien shuddered again. His own mother had wielded a stolen miraculous.

“But the peacock miraculous was broken and it drained her energy.” The man continued. “Until she became like that.”

“I am using it now, to help your father.” Nathalie added as if she wanted to encourage him, as if it was a good thing. “And your father fixed it for me, I used to be ill from the miraculous too, but I’m fine now.”

Adrien stared at the brooch. It was so close, a few steps away, if he reached out with his hand and jumped … but Plagg scratched him again. ‘Scratch that’ the tiny god of destruction told him.

“I can’t give you a miraculous.” Gabriel grinned. “You would detransform after using your powers just like those pesky kids that refuse to cooperate.”

Adrien instinctively pushed down the anger he felt, like so many times before when he spoke to his father.

“I could make an akuma out of you.” Gabriel offered. “Nathalie did it before.”

Adrien shifted his gaze towards Nathalie for a moment.

“She was Catalyst.” The man smiled wickedly. “She allowed me to release as many evilized butterflies as I wanted.”

Adrien made a step back unconsciously.

“Would you be our Catalyst Adrien?” Gabriel demanded.

Adrien took one more step back and shook his head involuntarily.

“Nooroo, dark wings, rise.” Gabriel took a step forward, moved his tie to the side, let his kwami enter the pin and transformed into Hawk Moth.

Adrien stared at Hawk Moth. He was his father. Plagg scratched his chest again and Adrien rubbed the spot.

“Duusu, dark feathers rise.” Nathalie called and transformed into Mayura.

“Are you going to be our Catalyst?” Hawk Moth demanded again.

Adrien stared at Hawk Moth. He knew that Hannah resisted the akumatization and negotiated. He needed to stay not-akumatized.

“Are you going to resist me?” The villain demanded.

“I … father I … “ Adrien stammered. The boy, civilian boy, was facing two supervillains. He had no chance. He needed to negotiate. He was not able to do it. He was not able to do it. He was not able to do it. He had no chance.

“He feels like he is not able to do it, like he has no chance, sir.” Mayura warned.

“Yes, I can tell.” Hawk Moth answered in a rather annoyed tone.

“He is just not ready yet, sir.” She shook her head.

Adrien began to hope they were going to leave him alone and not turn him into a monster. He took one more step back.

“Then he shall stay here and observe. He shall be ready before this night is over.” Hawk Moth announced.

Adrien could only stand and watch as Hawk Moth captured a white butterfly and turn it into a violet one. That was the first time he witnessed the process he saw reversed so many times. So Hawk Moth did not have a reservoir of evilized butterflies, he had to evilize one by one.

“Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her.” Hawk Moth snarled.

Adrien dreaded who was the target. There was little doubt in his mind. That butterfly was going straight for Lila and he knew who were her primary targets.

Then Mayura plucked a feather from her tail. He was surprised to see a white feather go out from a blue tail, but she quickly evilized the feather and blew it away.

“Fly away my little amok and make me a monster from her deepest despair.” Mayura spoke and watched the feather float away in the breeze.

“She is going to pick up allies.” Hawk Moth noted.

“Are we going after them?” Mayura inquired.

“We are going after them” He confirmed and turned towards the boy.

“Adrien, stay beside your mother. Nathalie and me are going to do everything to get the miraculous and bring her back.” Hawk Moth ordered.

Adrien quickly took a step back.

“You can’t use the elevator and you can’t contact anyone..” Hawk Moth warned. He could sense the anger and despair in his own son. But those were also the phases of mourning.

“I know it is hard to accept that your mother is in such condition, but as long as there are Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculous, there is hope, and I’m going to keep doing this as long as I have to, to bring your mother back.” Hawk Moth promised and the two villains jumped out from their lair.

Adrien walked over to the sarcophagus that held the body of his mother and collapsed on his knees.

“What are you doing kid?”

Adrien was crying.

“You have to transform kid and go after them.

“I can’t.” Adrien cried. “You heard him.”

“You can and you will transform and go after them, kid.”

“But I can’t fight my father, Plagg.”

“You have to, you’re a teenager, it is your duty.”

Adrien actually chuckled at that.

“Why don’t you take the ring to Ladybug, tell her to find a new Chat Noir and tell her why.” Adrien begged.

“Even if I ever wanted to take the ring from you, I can’t reveal the identity of a miraculous holder, not even Hawk Moth, and certainly not yours.” Plagg retorted.

“He knew I left the phone in my room.” Adrien hit his fist onto the floor.

“Kid, you have to transform, that’s the only way.” Plagg insisted.

“Do you think he has cameras in here?” Adrien looked around once.

“It won’t matter after this night, you heard him. Now, say the words kid.” Plagg ordered.

“Plagg, claws out.” And in a flash of green light, Adrien transformed into Chat Noir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Adrien, but what were the others doing in the meantime?


	75. Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where did that violet butterfly and feather go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making monsters ...

Troubles

Officer Roger Raincomprix had an examination to do. It was a really important one. Because on the opposite side of the table, there was the first person who was akumatized willingly. There were witnesses, there was a video of the event, and there was her mother and her lawyer.

Lila did her act, she took on the akuma and sacrificed herself so that the akuma would not multiply just like during Stoneheart. It was unclear if Mme Rossi or the lawyer bought the story, but they both supported the girl all the way. “Ladybug is my best friend. I had to help her.” The girl said.

But the man was not convinced. He saw the video, and then her daughter sent him a list of hundreds of lies that the girl produced over the months she spent in school. Several were ridiculous, like saving a kitten from a runway, but lying to excuse herself for school absence was something to look into.

“It is my duty to look into the other occasions when you have become an akuma.” Officer Roger pulled out a list on the tablet. “Now, your first day in College Francois Dupont. You have become Volpina, right?” He eyed the girl.

“Ladybug got me akumatized that time.” Lila shot back with so much anger in her voice.

“Your best friend got you akumatized?” Roger mentioned offhandedly as he made a note.

“Yes, I was talking to Adrien and she and she … She just came over and interrupted us and said that everything I told Adrien was a lie.” Lila sniffed and pretended to cry while she covered her eyes with her hands.

“Okay.” Officer Roger made a note. “We shall ask Adrien about this to confirm.” Lila did not look particularly happy about that. “Now what was it that you told Adrien and Ladybug said it was a lie.”

“Oh, just some stuff about my family and where I come from. You know, he grew up in a fashion empire and I come from Italy that is another fashion centre.” Lila smiled smugly.

“Oh really?” Officer Raincomprix asked nonchalantly.

Three Italians from the other side of the desk glared at him, but the man was not disturbed.

“Now, about your next akuma.” The man continued as he watched his the screen on the tablet in his hands.

“Marinette harassed me in the bathroom and I got akumatized in Chameleon.” Lila pretended to cry again.

“How unfortunate.” Officer Roger noted. “Have you reported the incident to the school authorities?” He raised his eyes and observed the girl in front of him. The inside information that the man had from his own daughter about the scale of Lila’s lies was holding him suspicious.

“Lila told me about the incident.” Mme Rossi spoke up in the place of her daughter. “She begged me not to press charges in the hope that the bully would stop harassing her and become her friend.”

“Each incidence of harassment has to be reported to the school authorities.” Officer Roger noted.

“But you see … I got akumatized and I couldn’t.” Lila cried. “Besides, Chloe got akumatized like half of that school and nobody ever reported her for harassment. Not even Marinette, as the class president.”

Officer Roger knew exactly why that was never reported. He seriously doubted everything Lila claimed.

“It is safe to say that the level of unreported harassment in that school is substantial.” The lawyer concluded. “Therefore, my client felt discouraged from reporting her own experience.”

Officer Roger shook his head but made a note.

“But I was not asking about that occasion.” The man continued his interrogation. “During the Hero’s Day parade, there was an incident that involved an illusion of akumatized Ladybug who attacked Chat Noir. Illusions are the speciality of your akuma, aren’t they?”

“I … um … akuma do not remember what they did and … “ Lila stammered out. Then the lawyer stepped in with a legal excuse for each akuma.

“I am aware of that, but people remember that they were akumatized. Do you remember being akumatized on the Hero’s Day?” Officer Roger insisted.

“Many people were akumatized on that day.” Lila replied flatly. Her mother and lawyer echoed the statement.

“Me included, but were you akumatized on that day? Yes or no?” The man insisted.

“Um … yes?” Lila shrugged.

Officer Roger made a note.

“No, according to the school records, you were not in school at the time because you were travelling to Achu and other exotic places. Your parents got caught in a Cyclone?” The man was reading the notes on his tablet.

“I can assure you that the Embassy does not organize exotic journeys for its personnel. Out job is to stay in Paris and take care of Italian citizens who need assistance in France.” The lawyer explained patiently.

“My daughter was not in school because the school was closed due to the akuma attacks.” Mme Rossi spoke in a rather irritated tone. Lila squirmed in her seat.

“So Lila was in Paris on Hero’s Day?” The man asked Mme Rossi and the woman confirmed.

“The school was not closed. My daughter goes to the same school.” Officer Roger spoke slowly and observed the woman on the other side of the table. It was entertaining to watch how many colours her face could assume in one minute.

“Mama, please understand, everyone in that school got akumatized, even my teacher Ms Bustier and the school principal. I was too scared to go there. Please mama?” Lila cried and begged her mother.

“My daughter still went to that school. Let’s go to the bottom of this. Who produced an excuse for the school and who signed it in your name, and in the name of the Italian Embassy as this was supposed to be an official visit, a business trip?” Officer Roger inquired.

“What have you done?” The lawyer screamed at Lila and her mother.

“What have you done?” Mme Rossi screamed at her daughter.

“I’m so sorry, there must have been some miscommunication. The school would not accept an excuse that I was too scared to go there because of all of the akuma attacks. And I was akumatized on my first day of school and ...” Lila looked at all three adults around her.

“Please excuse us, officer Roger, I believe we need to resolve some diplomatic matters related to the embassy business.” The lawyer politely asked officer Roger to leave the examination room until she talked to her clients.

Lila was standing on the side of the room, next to a window. She saw the violet butterfly illuminated by the street lights and opened the window. He sent for her. He finally sent for her. And now she was there and ready to cause trouble.

She grinned wickedly as the violet butterfly fluttered over. She caught it and let it occupy the tie on her sausage tail. She wanted to be someone new, not Volpina and not Chameleon. She wanted to cause trouble to everyone in her path.

“Troubletta” Hawk Moth talked to her. “I give you the power to cause trouble to everyone you find. You can materialize the creatures that got your target in their worst trouble.”

“I accept.” The akuma replied with a smile. Her hair remained unchanged, but her face and clothes changed into notorious green and orange fashion disaster. Her lips were green on an orange face. Her jacket was long and orange while her shorts become longer.

Troubletta floated in the air, joined her hands and produced a small ball of light. She sent the ball after the lawyer, who got hit and instantly another Lila formed in the room.

“Great.” The lawyer muttered through her teeth.

A purple feather floated into the room and assimilated into the black pen that Mme Rossi held in her hand.

“Troubledoll” Mayura spoke in her head.”You are an expert in avoiding troubles for your country and now your daughter. I give you the power to cause trouble to others, while you can avoid troubles by simply pressing a pen.”

“I accept.” Mme Rossi replied. A huge doll in the same shape as the akuma of her daughter had formed and Mme Rossi was inside its head while her pen was stuck in something like a control board of the monster.

As Troubledoll grew in size, it burst through the outer wall of the police station and soon a sentimonster the height of a six floor building roamed the streets of Paris. While a smaller version of the sentimonster, an akuma, floated beside her.

Two girls stood on a rooftop terrace. It was a beautiful view, a full moon, the Notre Dame cathedral lit up in all the right places, other monuments also lit up and partially visible from their view point, and the Eiffel Tower in the distance illuminated in its own artistic way.

“This is beautiful.” Hannah sighed.

“It is.” Marinette smiled.

“And the picnic place and the walk by the Seine.” Hannah continued. “The whole day today. Everything, everywhere we went, it was all so beautiful. Even the metro.”

Marinette laughed at that.

“It was.” Hannah smiled.

Marinette sighed and looked around. She loved her city and protecting it when she was Ladybug, but it was also a lot of responsibility. She let herself enjoy the companionable silence with a friend who was not asking questions all the time. But it could not last, of course.

“What were you and Adrien talking?” Hannah asked quietly. She was curious about her friend’s love life although she was not interested in her own.

“About … where we were during the akuma attack and … “ She did not want to remind Hannah how she got akumatized, but the girl did not produce any negative reaction. “And the request his father had made.”

“What request?” Hannah asked. “Is he in trouble?” It never occurred to her until that moment that Adrien might be punished for what happened at the community centre, she saw the boy during the day, he looked rather unpunished.

“His father told him that … if he ever gets a miraculous, to bring it home.” Marinette repeated quietly. She was lost in her own thoughts and memories, of the conversation and the way that blonde model boy with green eyes looked at her.

“Why would his father want a miraculous?” Hannah asked but backed away. She knew why she wanted it. And her wish was granted even though she did not use the miraculous for it. Chat promised and it was delivered. She was not going to question anyone about it and just be grateful.

“He already has so much power.” Marinette shrugged. Really, she had no explanation to offer. Besides the memories of certain boy and the way he smiled at her were making her knees weak and her brain turn into a pudding.

Hannah had no clue how much power Gabriel Agreste had, but she assumed it was much. She remembered rather vividly what a hunger for power did to people, other people, and what those power hungry monsters made people do to other people.

Marinette remembered how she once suspected that Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth because of that book that Adrien brought to school one day and Lila stole and Tikki recognized and they brought it to Master Fu and then she returned it to get Adrien back to school.

Adrien had mentioned that he had stolen the book from a safe? Was he talking about that? She remembered his warm eyes on her and the way he talked to her, quietly, just for the two of them. No, she was supposed to remember what he said not the way he told her.

She dismissed Gabriel as a suspect because he got akumatized. But Lila got akumatized willingly. That was the same way Gabriel could have akumatized himself. She needed to transform, talk to Chat and investigate, but Hannah was there for a sleepover.

Hannah yawed and looked tired. It was a long day for her. She got up really early and went to the bakery. Marinette just had to wait for a little bit for Hannah to fall asleep and she was going to be able to sneak out and transform. She turned back to the city.

There in the distance she clearly saw a monster, six floors tall with the same hair and face shape as Lila. The monster was wearing strange make up and was able to form balls of light that tended to do damage to the buildings. Great, they needed to hide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time to get help?


	76. The Crew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gathering the team for the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is slightly longer than the average.

The crew

“Is that another akuma?” Hannah pointed in the direction of the monster. “Looks like Lila.”

“Hannah, she is going for us. Alert my parents, and go and find some place safe to hide. I will alert the rest of the class and … um … “ Marinette walked awkwardly and waved her hands, she needed a little white lie to sell.

“You have to alert Alya and the Ladyblog and Ladybug and Chat Noir and possibly other heroes … “ Hannah jumped through the hatch door and then down the ladder. She was quick and she did not doubt Marinette’s motives.

Marinette quickly followed as Tikki floated out from somewhere where she was hidden.

“Lila became a monster again.” Marinette whined. “And I was just thinking how I might know who Hawk Moth is … oh what if Gabriel is Hawk Moth, poor Adrien, What am I going to do Tikki?”

“Get yourself together, Marinette, you have an akuma to fight.”

“I have to take all the miraculous, they are not safe here. It is Lila who is going after me.” Marinette opened the trunk and then the miracle box and took out all the jewels out and stored them into her purse. “Besides, I think we could use some help, this time.”

Marinette was about to transform when the hatch door leading to her room popped up. It was her father who peeked up through the hole.

“Come on, Marinette, you are going with us to safety.” The man insisted.

The girl was glad that the miraculous were hidden in her purse, save the Mouse miraculous around her neck. Tikki phased in the purse too and the girl rushed down the stairs and into her living room.

“I need to alert Alya, she will make a post on the Ladyblog and then Ladybug and Chat Noir will deal with the akuma.” Marinette rushed her explanation.

“Can’t you call her?” Sabine inquired while they were going down the stairs.

“Um she … isn’t answering?” Marinette waved her phone in her hand and ran out from the building. “You can … um … warn everybody else?”

Hannah already took her phone out and began to type while Tom and Sabine pulled her towards the building where her family lived.

Marinette ducked into an alley on the side and transformed into Ladybug. She launched her yoyo towards the Seine and flung away. She needed to deliver one miraculous before the others. The Liberty was tied to the embankment on its usual spot.

She landed on a rooftop and aimed her yoyo. One more jump and she was going to be on the ship. She was sure Luka was there. She needed the snake wielder active, she could use the second chance for other deliveries.

But there, from the corner of her eye, she noticed something flying her way and she ducked at the last moment. It was a fan. Mayura was there, and she was certain that Hawk Moth was not far away. She had to escape, there was no way she had a chance to deliver the snake miraculous right then.

Ladybug was quick. She escaped the two villains easily, but she was alone and she needed allies. She opened the communicator in her yoyo and observed the surroundings. She took her post on top of the Arc d’Triomphe as it allowed her to survey her surroundings and notice approaching danger quickly. There, on the communicator, was a voice mail from Chat Noir.

“Ladybug, I know who Hawk Moth is. Gabriel Agreste. Can’t tell you how I know. Identities and stuff. I’m in his lair below the mansion.” She heard from the communicator before she saw Hawk Moth going after her from one side. When she turned around to run, she saw Mayura.

There was no time to think about the information she just heard, let alone produce an answer. She jumped to the side and off the Arc before she even launched the yoyo to secure her escape. Mayura’s hand brushed over her pigtails while Hawk Moth almost caught her leg, but she was gone.

Now she knew where Chat was, she didn’t know how he got there nor if he was able to get out. From all she knew, she was not certain he still held onto his miraculous, he could have recorded the message before he lost it. She needed help and she needed them fast.

Ladybug was swinging away and thought she made an escape. She hid between two chimneys to have a moment and go over her plan. She was just one, one target and two villains. She tried to contact Chat, but his signal was bad, she left voicemail

“I am chased by Hawk Moth and Mayura.” She managed to say before she was interrupted.

“I am Troubletta.” An akuma floated over the street, produced a light ball and hit a person in the street. “I can make your biggest troubles come to life.” She announced. Beside the person in the street appeared someone who looked much like a mugger who was trying to rob the person.

“Lila is an akuma, Troubletta, produces light balls that make troubles.” Ladybug spoke to her communicator. Then something destroyed the chimney behind which she was hiding. Ladybug was thrown away, she turned around and saw Troubledoll.

“And there is a sentimonster in the same shape.” She warned before she had to save herself from a really nasty fall and hide again. She landed in an alley and called for her lucky charm. It was a mousetrap.

“Tikki, spots off.” She whispered. She knew she was still a target for the akuma and the sentimonster, but Hawk Moth and Mayura were not looking for Marinette.

“I am too much of a target when I’m Ladybug, Tikki.” Marinette whispered as she passed her kwami a cookie. She quickly put on each miraculous used by temporary wielders.

“Mullo, get squeaky.” She called and became Multimouse. With multitude and after jumping her rope enough times, she had divided herself into so many instances that she was finally tiny and a single kwami could carry her.

“Longg, take me to your wielder, take me to Kagami.” One Multimouse asked the dragon shaped kwami and they floated away.

“Sass, take me to the Liberty.” Another Multimouse took the ride on another kwami. Trixx, Wayzz, Kaalki, Xuppu and Pollen each took one Multimouse with them and floated away on their separate ways.

“Are you sure that is wise?” Tikki inquired one Multimouse who stayed with her.

“They are looking for Ladybug, not Multimouse and not the tiny kwami.” Multimouse replied. She knew it was a huge risk and that each of them could be spotted. But that is why Multimouse was there with each kwami, to help them hide and defend them.

Kagami was asleep on her futon bed when Longg and Multimouse entered through her partially opened window. But the girl was awake and transformed almost in no time. She observed the door that lead to her room and only worried if her mother was going to notice her absence.

Ryuko barely managed to jump from her window before a ball of light hit it. The outer wall was disintegrated and so was part of her room. Troubledoll worked on destroying the rest of her room and one sword that was hung on the wall got stuck in her hand like a splinter.

Tomoe Tsurugi opened the door that lead to the room where her daughter used to be and called for her. But the only reply was a hand of a monster that grabbed her.

“We have your mother Kagami.” Troubletta taunted as she hovered over Troubledoll’s shoulder.

Tomoe felt around with her hands. She sensed that she was carried around by a large monster. But then her fingers reached something familiar. She gripped the sword and pulled it out.

Troubledoll screamed in pain and opened the hand that held Tomoe. The woman was falling quickly. Ryuko jumped from the rooftop to save her mother, but Troubletta was faster. She dropped down and caught Tomoe who tried to fight her with the sword in her hand.

Troubledoll grabbed Tomoe, a door opened that lead into sentimonster’s chest and Tomoe was pushed inside. Ryuko tried to attack once more, but Lila’s mother pressed the pen in the control board and the hero only passed through. The only thing tangible was the chamber that held Tomoe, but it was out of reach.

Alya sighed. Ella and Etta were finally asleep for real and the girl was so exhausted that she was ready only to do the same. She needed her sleep. She spent the last night awake and fixed whatever she could on her blog. There were stupid comments to review but she felt like she had no energy to do that.

There was a small knock on her window and Alya saw Trixx who carried tiny Multimouse with her. It was so long since the last time she had used the fox miraculous. She understood now that Ladybug’s faith in her was damaged by Lila.

“Hi Trixx.” Alya greeted. “And hello Multimouse?” The girl smiled widely. Multimouse handed over the fox miraculous and soon Alya was transformed.

“It is too dangerous for Ladybug to be out in the open. Chat might be taken hostage, he is in Hawk Moth’s lair. It is Gabriel Agreste.” Multimouse spoke quickly. Rena Rouge almost fell off the roof at the last piece of information.

“What?” She demanded.

“There is a sentimonster and an akuma, both shaped after Lila and she is after anyone who she thinks is against her.” Multimouse continued to explain. “Hawk Moth and Mayura are out and about too.” She added. Rena Rouge looked confused, until she became deadly serious. She was going to have words with that villain.

Nino was sitting in front of his computer and his head nodded in the rhythm of the music from his headphones. Wayzz carrying Multimouse reached his window and knocked slowly, but the boy did not hear them over the music.

Multimouse tried to knock a few more times, but it was in vain. Finally, she got off from Wayzz and stood on a narrow windowsill while Wayzz phased through the glass and into the room. The kwami went straight into the boy’s face.

“Ugh, tiny dude, what’s up?” Nino grinned at the tiny kwami.

“Hello Nino.” Wayzz bowed while he floated in the air.

“Hello Wayzz, long time no see?” The boy and the kwami bumped their fists.

“Could you open the window please?” Wayzz asked and floated over to the window.

“Another tiny dude? Who are you?” Nino asked when he opened the window.

“Hello Nino, I am Multimouse, Ladybug sent me with the turtle miraculous for you.” Then she let him take the bracelet, put it on and transform while she explained the situation.

Carapace jumped from his window in the air, soon he was able to see where Troubledoll was destroying the neighbourhood. He found Rena Rouge and they exchanged warm smiles and greetings.

“I will destroy you for spreading lies about me.” Troubletta shouted while Troubledoll put her fist into the building where Alya lived and destroyed the window and part of the outer wall in the process.

“Leave my sister alone.” Nora shouted from the door that used to lead into her sister’s bedroom but now it was the open air. She held a frying pan in her hands, the foam and water was still dripping from it as the girl was obviously washing dishes until that point. Troubledoll caught Nora and stored her in the compartment in her chest.

Sass knew from Multimouse he carried that he had to be extra careful not to be seen. Hawk Moth and Mayura were waiting there the last time and it was plausible to expect them keeping watch again. They hovered in the shadow of the embankment just above the river waters.

They reached the boat and kept observing their surroundings. The two villains could be anywhere, hidden in the dark shadows on the rooftops on the side of the river. They hovered over to the boat under the board that lead to it from the river bank.

Then they had to enter the boat and find Luka so they hovered from one small round window to another to find an opening and enter the boat.

“Anarka is still awake.” Multimouse whispered when they passed the living room. Soft strums of a guitar told Multimouse and Sass where was Luka and that the boy was still awake. But he was behind a closed widow.

Multimouse knocked on the window softly. She needed to try a few times to catch a break in the melody so that Luka could hear her. It took her precious time and she kept looking around and checking for Hawk Moth and Mayura.

Luka finally heard her and opened the window.

“Hi Luka.” Multimouse greeted.

“Hi Multimouse. Hello Sass.” Luka greeted.

“Hello Luka.” Sass bowed.

“Call your power as soon as you transform. Hawk Moth and Mayura are probably outside watching.” Multimouse warned. “And take snacks.”

Luka transformed in Viperion and called for his second chance. He wanted to jump through the widow but Multimouse stopped him and briefed him about everything she knew, including the identity of Hawk Moth.

Viperion sat back on the bed in shock. He let himself use the rest of the five minutes to digest the information he got. Then he turned the bracelet.

“You already briefed me. Are we ready to go?” Viperion smiled to the tiny hero, but his eyes looked ready for murder the moment he jumped out from the window.

Hawk Moth and Mayura were waiting. Of course they were. And it took a few more restarts before Viperion managed to sneak out from his boat on the other side without being noticed by both villains.

Viperion was slightly too far to react to what happened next. Multimouse had to urge him not to, and maybe there were several second chances wasted on failed attempts to intervene.

“I’m sure I saw the transformation light from that window.” Hawk Moth shouted and directed Mayura for an attack.

Anarka first heard the two pairs of feet that landed on her boat. Then she turned around and saw the two villains. She grabbed her sabre without even looking at it and adjusted the scarf on her head.

“Yo and behold! You shall not take Liberty from me.” She shouted and went for an attack.

It took a lot of effort from Hawk Moth to keep her attacks futile.

“Go downstairs and find the boy.” He ordered Mayura. “Troubletta, direct Troubledoll here, you have someone to pick up.”

Mayura went from one room to another, but found no one. Juleka was staying with Rose for a sleepover.

“He is not here.” Mayura announced as soon as she was back on the deck.

Troubledoll’s hand just reached onto the deck and picked up Anarka who was swinging her sabre at Hawk Moth. But Anarka stabbed the sabre into the hand that held her several times before it let go of her and she was falling towards the dark waters of the river Seine.

Troubletta hit Anarka just once, but it was precise enough for the woman to land straight into the same compartment in Troubledoll’s belly where Nora and Tomoe were already stored.

Xuppu hovered in the tree while Multimouse was sitting on a branch. Her head was propped out on the palm of her hand while her elbow was on her knee. Both were bored. Kim was saying good night to Ondine in the street below.

Xuppu became bored and hopped from one branch to another like the monkey he was while Multimouse chose to remain bored. She knew what was happening elsewhere and the complete absence of action here was soothing.

Except they were loosing precious time. But Kim and Ondine took their time for their third or thirteenth good night for the evening. Xuppu was tempted to simply jump on the boy’s head but Multimouse whisper shouted ‘no’ and the monkey kwami had to listen.

Finally, Ondine entered the building and Kim turned around with a sigh. The next moment, a tiny monkey who carried the small version of the mouse heroine hovered straight into his face.

“Cool Xuppu!” Kim greeted slightly too loudly. All three of them looked around in panic. “And Multimouse. Glad to see you again.” The boy grinned and took his miraculous. Multimouse quickly explained what was going on their way to the nearest alley where the boy transformed.

Claudie Kante was excited. She was trying out her new space suit. Max and his tiny robot Markov examined and admired the suit. Max recited some technical data while Markov proposed a few technical modifications that might improve its design even further.

Claudie laughed at their antics and observed herself in the mirror. Then she finally decided to go back to her room and change back, but not before she made notes about everything that Markov suggested. She had a long way to go before she graduated her school for astronauts.

As soon as his mother left the room, Max heard a knock on the window. Kaalki hopped happily as soon as the boy turned around. Multimouse had to hold on to the kwami tightly so she did not drop off from it. She used her tiny rope to try and steer the tiny horse but gained little control.

Max noticed that the sentimonster was approaching up the street and lost no time in calling for his transformation as soon as he replaced the glasses. He was out from the window in no time. But the sentimonster did not notice Peagasus or chose to ignore the hero.

“Markov, what did you say about the pressure difference regulation?” Claudie Kante spoke as she walked into the room. Sentimonster reached with her hand and grabbed the woman.

“Now your kids have put you into trouble, just how mine has put me.” Troubledoll spoke in entirely artificial voice before the woman in the spacesuit was stored into the monster’s chest.

“Come on! We still have to find that baker girl and her mother.” Troubletta shouted at the sentimonster and the two went to the bakery again.

Chloe was having a dinner with her parents. It was supposed to be a lovely family dinner where Chloe would annoy the waiter, Audrey would get half of the staff fired and Andre Bourgeois, the mayor of Paris, would sit aside and watch in fear.

Instead, Chloe felt like she was third wheeling a couple on the most romantic date. Her parents never stopped giving compliments to each other (and her of course, they never forgot about her and Audrey even used the right name for her daughter each time).

They went through two courses and the waiter was bringing cheese and desserts and her mother still did not fire anyone. The duty of being a nuisance to the staff fell solely onto Chloe’s shoulders. It was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

And she had to watch her own parents sweet talk to each other during the whole meal. They wiped each other’s faces, they exchanged smiles and from time to time even kisses. It was disgusting to watch and she suffered throughout the whole ordeal.

Fortunately, there was an akuma alert to save her from further torture and Chloe left for her luxury room on the top floor of Le Grand Paris. At least up there she had her butler, Jean-something to torture and let the steam out.

But her lovely parents followed her to the elevator so the torture continued. Chloe actually blushed at their actions. Her father was a mayor of Paris, her mother was a world renown fashion critic, she made and destroyed fashion moguls, and they behaved like two teenagers.

Chloe scoffed and got out from the elevator and went straight to her room. She was ready to storm the social media and go to bed. She wasn’t tired, but she needed her beauty sleep. But there, in front of her window, hovered a very familiar bee that carried a tiny hero.

“Pollen?” Chloe smiled widely when she saw the kwami through the window.

“Ladybug sent me with the bee miraculous.” Multimouse spoke carefully. “But we need to hide and talk first.”

“What? She needs me again and just sends you to my window? Ladybug seldom bothered to bring me the miraculous or retrieve it from me, she always sent that mangy cat. And now she sends … what are you anyway?” Chloe rambled while she let the kwami and the hero inside and they hid in her wardrobe.

Multimouse rolled her eyes. This was a bad idea. Chloe was not getting better.

“Call me Multimouse. First of all, I need your promise that you will fight on Ladybug’s side and return your miraculous either to her or to me after the battle.” The tiny hero demanded.

“Multimouse? You are that new hero?” Chloe scoffed. “And I should return my miraculous to you?”

“Or Ladybug.” Multimouse stressed.

“Right.” Chloe stomped her foot.

“You need to know the rest of the information before we go.” Multimouse continued after a short silence.

“What information?” Chloe demanded.

“Promise first that none of this shall reach Hawk Moth nor Mayura!” Multimouse demanded.

“Okay, I promise, I will fight on Ladybug’s side if she can’t really fight without me.” Chloe raised her nose. “And I’m not going to spill to Hawk Moth whatever you tell me if you give me that comb.”

“Good. Now you should know that we have discovered Hawk Moth’s identity.” Multimouse spoke quietly.

“Yes?” Chloe bounced in her spot and covered her mouth with both hands, excited in anticipation.

“Gabriel Agreste.” Multimouse spoke solemnly.

“What?” She screeched. “Adrien’s dad?”

Then Multimouse explained the rest of the situation to rather speechless Chloe who kept repeating that “Adrien’s dad is Hawk Moth.” Then Chloe suddenly woke up from her stupor, grabbed the comb, put it in her hair, nuzzled Pollen and transformed.

“Okay, let’s nail those fashion disasters.” Queen Bee exclaimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each time I read it there is some stupid error


	77. How to Get Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir has to get out from his head and Hawk Moth's lair.  
> Multimouse is looking for Adrien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part turned out angsty.

Get out

Chat Noir left the voicemail for Ladybug about the identity of Hawk Moth. Once the words were out, he suddenly became aware of everything that was going on and collapsed over the sarcophagus. The body below the glass was so beautiful and elegant, like his mother, but just not.

The vast cavernous room was actually below the Agreste mansion, his own room was somewhere up there. The dining room too. He slept maybe just above that spot in the corner. He shivered.

His mother was there, dead but not buried. His father was Hawk Moth, a villain with superpowers who terrorized Paris and the World on a daily basis. Nathalie, his father’s assistant, the woman who he saw replacing his mother, was Mayura, another villain, completely devoted to his father.

He was Chat Noir and kept fighting the monsters his father created ever since they started to terrorize Paris. He was fighting his father, he just did not know that. He had no family left. His mother was gone, save her body was there, his father and Nathalie had obviously gone mad.

Then he remembered what he was told about how she became that way. She used the peacock miraculous. He tried to remember if he ever saw his mother wearing a mask. What was she doing with the peacock miraculous? Was she creating monsters too?

Chat was transformed and had no one to talk to, because he absorbed Plagg. The kwami would probably tell him to just go and get out of there by any means necessary, but the boy couldn’t do it. He finally saw his mother again after so much time and he wanted a little time before he had to go.

“Hi mum.” Chat greeted through tears. “I’m glad … I’m glad I found you … that he showed this to me … so that I could say goodbye.” He sniffled. “I … um … I miss you every day.” Another sniffle. “But it is getting better. At least I have friends now.”

The only friend he had while his mother was alive was Chloe. There was no way he missed that life now. He did miss his mother, but not the life he used to have. And bringing his mother back meant that he had to let his father win, to let Hawk Moth win.

Chat shook his head, that was out of the question. His mother was gone, only, she was right there in front of him, and she looked as if she was alive, just sleeping. Except her lungs were not moving, her hair was perfectly done and she was wearing a suit.

That was the way one prepared a body for a burial in an open casket, not to put one in bed for sleeping, even those who were in a coma. The body of his mother was prepared for a display, to look beautiful, not to get healthy, if at all possible.

“I have friends now.” Chat repeated and then he started to ramble about his friends, about Marinette, Kagami, Nino, Alya, Luka, other kids from his class. He talked and talked about his friends and he started to feel better.

Chat finally checked his communicator and saw that Ladybug sent him voicemail back. It was several short messages and he listened through them all.

“I am chased by Hawk Moth and Mayura.” He heard Ladybug’s voice and closed his eyes. Hawk Moth and Mayura, his father and Nathalie, aided with superpowers, both against his lady, alone, while he lingered in that lair, while he felt useless to fight.

“I am Troubletta.” He heard a voice recorded from a distance. “I can make your biggest troubles come to life.” ‘Of course’ Chat muttered, each akuma caused troubles. So there was an akuma, and if what his father said was true, he knew who it was. He played the next message.

“Lila is an akuma, Troubletta, produces light balls that make troubles.” He heard Ladybug’s voice. Then he heard some loud noises and thuds, his Lady was fighting, she was in trouble. “And there is a sentimonster in the same shape.”

That was the last recorded message and he wasted precious minutes before he listened to them. His lady was alone against the world while he was fighting his own demons inside his heart and head. He shook his head, took the communicator and tried to call his lady, but there was no answer.

He wanted to destroy everything around him, to make a huge hole in the wall and just jump through. But what if Ladybug got caught? What if Hawk Moth had the earrings already? He still needed his ring to make that wish.

No, he needed to stay in the lair and hide. When Hawk Moth returned, Chat was going to have a surprise for both villains. He was going to wait for them to detransform and then he was going for an attack. Yes. He had a plan of his own. He was going to sit there and wait.

Ladybug did not instruct him to do anything, to go anywhere? She had no wishes nor demands from him. He could just stay put.

But she said that Lila got akumatized and there was a sentimonster to her image. And he knew where both of them were going. They were going after Marinette, Hannah and probably more of his friends. Possibly after him. He tried to reach the news on his baton and see how far the akuma got.

The signal was bad but he managed. Nadia Chamack was reading the news from the studio, of course. Ladybug was seen briefly, but then she disappeared. Hawk Moth and Mayura were still rampaging around. It was time to switch to the news reporter in the field and get some live coverage.

“Good evening, this is Clara Contard. It has been confirmed that the person akumatized is in fact Lila Rossi” The reporter continued to summarize the events from the day before. “Different heroes had been seen around the city and the sentimonster had been targeting their homes.”

Chat recognized the statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir in the park close to Marinette’s home. He saw Hannah in the background. Apparently, Marinette’s parents and Hannah and other families simply went to the park as the sentimonster attacked buildings.

“We have been waiting here, close to the home of two of Lila’s classmates that we assumed would be the first targets of the akuma and the sentimonster, but they have made many stops and destroyed several homes on their way.” The reporter said.

Chat Noir clenched his fist. He should have transformed and went after Hawk Moth and Mayura the same moment they left the lair. Instead he was there and moped over his dead mother and the fact that his father and his assistant were the very villains he was fighting.

He searched frantically for a way out. He was not going to use his cataclysm and waste the power he could use to defend his friends. Just a few jumps away and he was going out. The window villains used was closed. Ladybug was probably still at large …

“There is no news about Ladybug, she had not been seen for quite a long time, ever since the start of the battle when she was chased around a boat named Liberty and later from the Arc d’Triomphe. It had been assumed that Ladybug got caught!” The reporter announced.

Chat fell to his knees. They had Ladybug. He had to save her. But the best chance he had was to stay there in their lair, hidden, and wait. Marinette’s home looked undamaged, the girl was probably somewhere safe. Other heroes were seen. Maybe she was Multimouse again?

Tikki carried Multimouse to the rooftop of the Agreste mansion.

“Let’s have a look around first, Tikki.” Multimouse proposed. “But we have to be careful, I’m sure there are cameras all around.”

They slowly made one circle all around the mansion.

“It looks empty, even Adrien’s room looks deserted.” Multimouse whispered to her tiny red kwami.

“Have you checked his bathroom? The boy is known for his long showers.” Tikki teased.

Multimouse blushed.

“Tikki!” She whined.

Tikki snickered.

“This is not the moment.” Multimouse groaned.

Tikki shrugged.

“Look, we have to find Adrien and bring him to safety.” Multimouse insisted.

Tikki rolled her eyes. She knew where Adrien was exactly, at least where he used to be when Chat sent that message.

“Shouldn’t you try to reach Chat and discuss it with him? Perhaps your partner had already taken Adrien to safety?” The tiny red goddess of creation chirped, but she sounded annoyed by the whole situation and the waste of time and energy.

“Chat said he was in Hawk Moth’s lair in the mansion and I have a plan but I have to get Adrien to safety first.” Multimouse insisted.

“Why don’t you check his bathroom too? If he is not there it is safe to assume Adrien is not in the mansion.” Tikki proposed.

Multimouse blushed again.

“Okay, I’m sending the boys to look for Adrien and I’m going to look for Chat.” Multimouse relented. Tikki accepted the deal. It was the best she could do.

“Tikki, Mullo, unify.” Multimouse called and her suit got several areas that were red with black spots.

“Peagasus, create a portal to the room of Adrien Agreste.” Multibug ordered.

“King Monkey, Peagasus and Carapace, go inside and look for Adrien. We have to bring him to safety.” Multibug continued. The other Multimouse transferred the orders to those who were not listening over their communicators.

Multibug knew that Viperion was detransformed and feeding his kwami somewhere on a random rooftop.

“Rena Rouge, Ryuko, Queen Bee, protect the civilians and Hannah in the park. Troubledoll did not reach the bakery yet.” Multibug continued. There were several Multimouse in the park and observed the situation.

Multibug checked the street. One Multimouse was by the man gate to the mansion, ready to sneak inside if needed. She finally tried to call Chat, but made sure the call was without a video.

“Chat, where are you?” Multibug tried to get her partner through the earpiece.

“Is this you Ladybug?” Chat was confused. There was no video and he was reluctant to reveal his location to anyone who just called. Even if that was really Ladybug, she might have been captured by Hawk Moth.

“It’s Multimouse.” She whispered.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, oh you’re safe, I’m so glad that you’re safe.” Chat sounded as if he was crying on the other side.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Multimouse smiled.

“And Ladybug, is she okay?” Chat inquired.

“She had to … go under cover a little. She is here but can’t be seen. Sort of.” Multibug was nervous about lying to her partner like that.

“Oh, I was afraid she got captured so I was thinking to wait here and surprise the villains and set her free and take their miraculous and … “ He was rambling. “But I can’t find the way out without using my cataclysm.”

“Are you … in the same place where you’ve been when you left the message for Ladybug?” Multimouse phrased the question carefully.

“Yes.” Came a quiet reply from Chat. “So you know … the whole message?” Chat felt dread. That meant Marinette knew that his father was Hawk Moth.

“The whole message.” Multimouse replied quickly. “All the temporary heroes are active and know it too.” She added quietly.

Chat needed a moment. His friends knew that his father was the villain. They were outside and fighting his father, Nathalie and the monsters they created.

“Okay, so I need to get out from here and help you guys out.” He concluded.

“Can’t you get out the same way you got in?” Multibug asked.

“Not an option.” Chat shook his head. “I’m just going to cataclysm the place to get out. Are you safe?”

“Wait, Chat, no!” Multibug shouted. “We have to make sure Adrien is safe first. Peagasus had made a portal into his room, King Monkey and Carapace are looking for him.”

“Tell them to get out, he is not there.” Chat replied rather coldly.

“Chat, where is Adrien?” Multibug asked worriedly.

There was no answer.

“Chat, did you see Adrien?” She asked again.

There was no answer.

“Chat, what did you do to Adrien?” She tried one more time.

There was no answer.

“Chat, are you there?” She asked quietly.

“Yes, I’m here.” She heard a reply in a quiet voice.

“Chat, does Adrien know … about his father?” Multimouse asked timidly.

“Yes.” Chat confirmed. “He learned about half an hour ago.”

“Is he there, with you? Is he okay?” She whispered.

Chat was silent again. She was worried about him, about Adrien, about Hawk Moth’s son. He heard it in her voice. She still cared. His friends went to the mansion to save him. They were looking for him. They wanted to find him. They should have fought the villains and forgotten about him.

“Is everyone out of the mansion?” Chat asked in a hoarse voice.

“Yes.” Multibug confirmed. She muted her communicator and called for her lucky charm to see what to do next. If she wanted to be the live size Ladybug again, she needed all Multimouse in one place, and currently they were all around the Arrondissement. She got a tiny mouse.

“Cataclysm.” She heard from the other side of the line and the mansion before her started to disintegrate to dust.

Multibug quickly launched her yoyo in the opposite direction. She instructed one Multimouse to appear in the street just in front of the building so that Chat Noir would see her and not Multibug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand into the battle


	78. Park Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the battle begins ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Action part one

Park Life

Hannah did not spare a moment. At first, Tom and Sabine thought the idea was to take shelter inside the building. But when they saw what Troubledoll was doing, the adults made a decision to just go outside to the park. Away from the bakery but not too far.

The temporary heroes were going after the akuma and the sentimonster and tried to find and destroy the infected objects. Multmouse directed them, but Troubletta was fast and Troubledoll could become untouchable. In effect, it was impossible to reach the control board in her head.

Peagasus was instructed to make a portal so Carapace and King Monkey went to search for Adrien. The Multimouse that were with them stayed to help with the battle. But the search for their classmate was in vain.

Viperion wasted a lot of precious time to finally escape and hide from Hawk Moth and Mayura. By that time he detransformed and started feeding his kwami. He knew he was probably going to be needed.

Rena Rouge created an illusion of Marinette and Hannah to lead the akuma and the sentimonster away from the bakery and into an open space, but Troubletta caught up with them using one of her fire balls and the illusion disintegrated.

“Venom” Queen Bee threw herself onto the sentimonster to sting with her venom, but Lila’s mother pressed the pen in the control board and Queen Bee passed right through. The hero rolled on the ground and jumped back on her feet, she chased after the sentimonster and tried and tried.

Troubledoll threw huge fire balls towards the park and the surrounding buildings, especially one particular bakery and Ryuko launched her power of the water dragon to extinguish the fire balls and protect the civilians. But Troubledoll simply walked through the water barrier.

Hawk Moth and Mayura observed the battle from a safe distance.

“They have all used their powers. Soon, their miraculous is going to be mine.” He clenched his fist and grinned wickedly in anticipation.

“Everything is going according to plans, sir.” Mayura smiled by his side.

Each time Queen Bee was close to the sentimonster, she would become untouchable, but at least she was not able to produce fireballs at that time nor hit buildings with her fist and destroy their outer walls.

Troubletta was throwing her own balls of fire at the heroes. She hit Rena Rouge and another Lila appeared. Rena rolled her eyes, ignored the creature or smacked her with her flute.

Queen Bee got hit in the back while she was attacking Troubledoll and to her own surprise, another Chloe appeared. Queen Bee scoffed. Chloe scoffed back. Rena and Ryuko exchanged a look.

Ryuko evaded fireball after fireball that was thrown at her by Troubletta then she created the water shield against the large fire balls created by Troubledoll.

Finally, Queen Bee sneaked up to the sentimonster from behind and was about to hit the heel of the sentimonster but the sting went right thorough again and she hit Chloe copy. Troubledoll continued to walk and threw fireballs around randomly.

King Monkey, Carapace and Peagasus returned through the portal.

Hawk Moth waited for the heroines to use their powers before he went after Queen Bee, he jumped straight in front of her and demanded her to side with him.

“Look at all you temporary heroes doing the battle when it gets the toughest!” Hawk Moth taunted. “Where are your so called stars? Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir? Where are the heroes of Paris? They are hiding and they let you in the battle alone.”

“What did you do to Adrien?” Chloe demanded, completely untouched by his provocation.

“What?” Hawk Moth froze for a precious moment and got hit by the sting, but the venom was gone so he recovered quickly.

Rena Rouge facepalmed while she avoided another fireball.

“Where is Adrien?” Chloe demanded.

“Who … “ Hawk Moth snarled but then backed down, he was not going to admit his identity.

“Yes I know that you are Gabriel Agreste behind that mask! Wait until I tell my mother that all those monsters you created, no, those horrendous fashion disasters you call akuma were your creations. She is going to bury you!” Queen Be continued to threaten.

She tried to defend herself with her sting, but her weapon was useless against his stick with a blade, so Ryuko jumped between them and defended Queen Bee with her sword.

Mayura jumped after Rena Rouge, but the flute was at least a good defence against the fan although it was not much of a weapon. Meanwhile Troubledoll threw her fists into the bakery rooftop and destroyed it while Troubletta waited, ready to throw balls to anyone there.

The flat was empty and the sentimonster resumed throwing fire balls around. Carapace activated the shield the moment him and Peagasus returned to protect the heroes from another fire ball. Viperion was back at the scene, his five minute count was already counting.

Multimouse studied Troubletta. It became apparent that the infected object must be in her hair and the obvious choice was one of the hair ties. But which one? Two Multimouse sneaked up and climbed, one on a car, another on the wall and jumped at Troubletta.

Unfortunately, the villain was just as fast, she quickly floated up, just out of reach from small heroes and then threw a fire ball at them. Tiny heroes evaded the fire ball and in hit the ground and created a small hole in it.

Multibug turned away from the sight that used to be the Agreste mansion and saw Troubledoll in the distance destroying the rooftop above the bakery. She studied her lucky charm that was a squeaky toy shaped as a mouse.

“Great.” She looked around, but there were no clues. She needed time to reach there. She needed all Multimouse in one place to join. The heroes had used their powers and they needed Ladybug to purify the butterfly and the feather even if they succeed. She had to be there.

“Return the time only if any of the heroes gets captured.” Multimouse whispered to Viperion and left. The snake hero did not join the chaos of the battle, it would be too much to follow what was going on with each hero if he also had to fight. So he remained hidden.

Multimouse was running down the street towards an alley she decided was her meeting point. Chat saw tiny Multimouse in the street below and picked her up. His ring beeped. He hugged her gently.

“You’re okay.” He spoke and smiled.

“Chat, can you give me a lift and leave me in an alley?” Multimouse asked quietly.

“Yes.” Chat confirmed and vaulted away.

“Where is Adrien? Is he safe? Is he okay?” Multimouse begged for an answer.

“He is as safe as he can be.” Chat replied quietly. “But he can’t be okay.”

“I understand.” She replied timidly. “His friends still love him.”

Chat held her closer to his chest. There might have been a tear in his eye.

Then she explained to Chat Noir how Troubledoll and Troubletta functioned, how they created fire balls that could create troubles or destroy parts of buildings.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

Chat released Multimouse where she asked him to but he was reluctant to leave.

“Go Chat, tell everyone to leave and feed their kwami when they reach one minute mark and keep Hawk Moth and Mayura off them.” Multimouse instructed quietly.

“Tell me Ladybug is safe.” Chat whispered.

“As safe as she can be.” Multimouse smiled.

Then he finally turned around and walked away. His steps were heavy, but determined, he knew he was a target, it was his miraculous the villains were after, it was him they wanted. His friends were there, fighting his father, fighting for him.

Ryuko and Queen Bee were fighting Hawk Moth. Rena and Carapace engaged in a battle with with Mayura.

Peagasus and King Monkey were fighting numerous monsters, machines gone wild, runaway cars and similar menaces created by Troubletta and her light balls.

Their miraculous were beating and they were rounded up.

“Perhaps we should have waited for their miraculous to wear down completely and then simply follow them?” Mayura dared to say while she barely managed to evade joint attacks from Rena and Carapace by escaping among other monsters.

“They would have dispersed in different directions, this way we have them all right here.” Hawk Moth snarled and went for another hit at Ryuko that she evaded with practised ease and even managed a counter attack that forced Hawk Moth to step back.

Troubletta created a ball and threw it at Rena rouge, but she jumped to the side and it hit Ryuko. Suddenly giant figure of Ikari Grozen appeared in the park and roamed around her mighty sword swept at the heroes and they had to lie down or jump away to avoid it.

Multimouse gasped. Her tiny size allowed her to avoid the sword, but she was terrified what monster would come alive if she got hit. She had to come together with the rest and become a smaller number of targets.

Chat walked in straight into the chaos that was the battle and instantly jumped between Hawk Moth and Ryuko and engaged in a duel using his staff while Ryuko tried to pull Queen Bee away from Ikari Grozen.

“Anyone under a minute, go now, the rest, keep Mayura and Hawk Moth busy.” Chat muttered into his communicator. Peagasus and Rena Rouge started to look for a clean way out. Finding that while surrounded by roaming menaces, an akuma, a sentimonster and two villains was not easy.

"I don't have to, everyone knows my identity." Queen Bee countered and hid Hawk Moth on the top of his head with the sting but it only annoyed the villain (a lot).

"Go and recharge. Make that sting of yours useful." Chat ordered.

Queen Bee huffed, but obliged

“We need to get into the head of the Troubledoll, the amok has to be there.” Chat Noir spoke into his earpiece. Viperion observed the battle hidden on a rooftop. But his timer was already down to three minutes. He assumed other heroes had less.

“How do I enter that monster’s head if she can become untouchable whenever she wants.” Viperion whispered to his earpiece. He was ready to get into action.

“We have to do something to ensure that the sentimonster is touchable.” Chat Noir shouted while he evaded Hawk Moth’s attack by jumping behind a tree. He noticed Hannah who was also hiding there. Sabine was in a bush nearby.

“Go and hide.” Chat hissed.

“I’m hidden.” She smiled and leaned closer to the tree.

Chat Jumped back to the battle, but Hawk Moth surprised him and hit the staff in such a way that it flew from his hand and straight into the bush. With his next move, he got Chat Noir pinned to the ground with his foot.

“Where is your Ladybug now?” Hawk Moth taunted. “She’s nowhere to be seen.”

To make matters worse, Chat Noir’s ring beeped.

“Should I go for it or should I just wait for you to detransform?” Hawk Moth bent over to reach for the ring.

But he got smacked in the face by Chat Noir’s staff. There on the side, stood Sabine and twirled the staff around her and stroke one more hit. Hawk Moth turned after her and loosened his grip on Chat who instantly got on his feet.

Troubledoll was ruining the whole building that held the bakery. Tom was there and shouted at the monster in vain. Then he hit the monster a few times in the foot, but the most he achieved was for it to become untouchable and stop demolishing the building.

Unfortunately, that was when Viperion tried to enter the monster’s head so he just passed through. The monster looked down at Tom. Hannah ran over and pulled his arm.

“No, papa Tom, leave it alone, run.” She pulled the large man in vain.

But the monster’s eyes bulged out. She had a new prey, she bent over and tried to reach them.

“Quick, run!” Hannah shouted. “She has to be touchable if she wants to catch us.”

Tom and Hannah were running. The monster caught Tom quickly, but Hannah was small and changed the direction easily. Viperion finally had a chance and jumped. He found Ryuko was thinking the same and he pushed her into the monster’s mouth.

Ryuko smashed the pen that was stuck in the control board with her sword and a violet feather fluttered out.

The sentimonster fell on her knees then it fell completely down. Hannah had to run away to the side so that the monster would not fall on top of her. Then the sentimonster disintegrated.

Multimouse quickly jumped all together in an alley on the side, when they joined she released the mouse transformation and Ladybug was left standing with less than two minutes to spare. She quickly gave food to Mullo and jumped to the rooftop. She had some cleansing to do.

Hawk Moth quickly realized that he did not need Sabine nor the staff, but Chat Noir’s ring so he turned back and went after the hero.

“Hah!” Mayura shouted from the side where she was fighting King Monkey who mostly just danced around and evaded her attacks, while his rubber frog never hit the intended target, but other monsters did get frozen. “The feather is out, but who is going to clean it?”

“Yes, where is she?” Hawk Moth taunted. “She abandoned all of you!”

It was another swipe of Ikari Grozen’s sword that hit Chat from the back into his knees and got him to fall down. Hawk Moth was there again to snatch his ring.

“I’m here” Ladybug landed and released a white feather from her yoyo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	79. Friends and Foes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle continues (and finishes) here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I make everything so complicated?

Friends and Foes

Just after they defeated the sentimonster, Troubledoll, Ryuko and Viperion looked at each other. Her miraculous was issuing the last warning. Akuma was still sending light balls around, rather annoyed by the fact that Hannah hid again.

“You are going to detransform.” Viperion warned.

“He knows my identity from the day one.” Ryuko admitted.

“ You _are_ weaker as a civilian. He doesn’t need to get your miraculous.” Viperion grabbed her and jumped up to the rooftop. Her choker was issuing the last warning.

“I’m not that harmless when detransformed.” She warned and detransformed in Kagami. But then she looked at her hands. She had no sword.

“No, you are not. But right now, you are unarmed.” He confirmed and jumped a few more rooftops away to find a safe place before he had to release his transformation too.

“All heroes have to detransform.” Hannah shouted as she ran to a group of women that appeared from the chest of the sentimonster. She was quickly sheltered by them. Tom ran away to another side and he was much larger target to follow, but each light ball that hit the man just produced one more failed cake.

Tomoe gripped her sword and observed the battle that unfolded all around them. Anarka raised her sabre and howled ready to face any foe now that she was finally free from the confinement. Claudie looked at her surroundings and crossed her arms, yep this was a problem to solve.

Nora did not wait a single second, she left the other women and ran straight into the battle, she swung her weapon left and right through the crowd and hit everyone around with her frying pan. Even King Monkey had to step away not to get smacked.

“Hey” He shouted at Nora.

“You have to run and detransform anyway.” Nora cut away his protest and went after Mayura with full force. Only then King Monkey noticed that all the other temporary heroes have already ran away to detransform and recharge. He scratched his head, shrugged and jumped away.

Chat Noir was pinned down while Hawk Moth was reaching for his ring. But it was a fire ball from Troubletta that reached the hero first. The glow made Hawk Moth flinch away. In the heat of the battle he let akuma rampage on her own. And there, just beside them, appeared another Chat Noir.

“Copy Cat?” Ladybug screamed incredulously. “Your biggest trouble was Copy Cat?” She was there to protect him from Hawk Moth but got surprised jus like the villain did.

Chat Noir tried to smile sheepishly while he squirmed and shook his body and was trying to escape Hawk Moth who stared at the Copy Cat beside him.

“This explains a lot. You cause most of your troubles anyway. Now give me that ring.” The villain pressed his food and the cane down on Chat and bent over to reach for the ring.

Ladybug launched her yoyo towards Hawk Moth to prevent him from snatching the ring of Chat Noir that squirmed under the villain’s foot and clawed his leg. Sabine was running over from the other side with Chat’s staff in her hands.

Chat Noir almost got away from Hawk Moth, but rather confused Copy Cat stepped his foot on the hero’s chest. Chat found it difficult to breathe, but he did move his arm around.

“Where is your son, Hawk Moth, where is Adrien?” Chat Noir taunted as he tried to squirm away. It was an attempt to confuse the villain and get his chance for an escape. “I had to destroy the mansion to get him out of there.”

Ladybug froze for a moment when she heard that. That was a slightly different story than what he told Multimouse. Chat never told her (in any form) where he put Adrien, just that he was as safe as he could be.

“You what?” Hawk Moth snarled.

“What do you think I used my cataclysm for? And I really enjoyed it.” Chat grinned.

Ladybug got hit by a fire ball from Troubletta.

“Ha ha ha” The akuma laughed wickedly. “Now we’ll meet your worst trouble.”

Ladybug froze for a brief second. She knew exactly who was going to appear.

Chat Blanc looked at her with blue eyes.

Chat stared at the white version of him from the ground.

Copy Cat tried to reach for Chat’s ring. Chat clenched his fist and hit him straight in the face.

Hawk Moth stood there for a moment, frozen in time, surprised. There were too many Chat’s around him for his comfort, but then he reminded himself that at least two of them were created to work for him.

“It is our love that destroyed the world.” Chat Blanc shouted. Ladybug visibly shivered but took a step towards him. Her mouth agape, her eyes were shining from unshed tears.

“Ha ha ha, I knew it!” Hawk Moth grinned wickedly. “Your feelings for each other are you biggest weakness.”

Then he got smacked right in the face by Chat Noir’s staff. Held by Sabine.

Ladybug quickly pulled the chord of her yoyo and Hawk Moth lost his balance only a little but it was sufficient for Chat to jump out and set himself free. Sabine hit Hawk Moth one more time and then another.

“Looks like you should keep it.” Chat smiled at Sabine and snatched the staff from the Copy Cat. He ran over to Ladybug unsure how to protect her from whatever he was looking at. Was that another Copy Cat? He was not able to tell, he never saw it, but his lady looked scared and sad.

And he wanted to hear the rest of the speech after that first sentence. He had to.

Hawk Moth was kept busy. Sabine was doing rather well with his staff, Tomoe and Anarka were already by her side and attacked the villan. Hawk Moth had to use all his added agility and strength just to defend himself from their attacks. He was surprisedhow agile they were to evade his blows.

Ladybug made those few steps and closed the distance to Chat Blanc. He did not summon his cataclysm yet, so she smiled reassuringly and walked bravely. She remembered that the akuma was in his bell and reached for it. But Chat Blanc was abut to speak.

“Please give me your miraculous. Let me bring everything back. Let me bring our love back. Don’t you love me? I still love you, Ma .. “ He pronounced and she quickly covered his mouth with her hand. Tears pricked her eyes. Chat Noir was almost frozen in his spot.

She raised her other hand and grabbed his bell. She had to do it. She pulled the bell and released a violet butterfly caught it and cleansed it in one automatic motion. She still held her hand over his mouth as his suit changed colour to black and his eyes became green again.

Chat Noir understood that it was him, but akumatized. He had no memory of that ever happened. And then a giant hand grabbed Ladybug and cleansed Chat. Ikari Grozen got hold of them and opened her mouth to swallow them.

Cleansed Chat suddenly looked around and his eyes went wide when he saw Hawk Moth fighting Sabine, Anarka and Tomoe. He shook his head and leaned to the side as much as he could to see better.

Chat Noir vaulted up in the air after the hand that took his lady and the other Chat.

“Father!” Cleansed Chat shouted beside Ladybug’s hand. Her eyes went wide. The realization struck her, her hand fell from his motuh. That was how he learned the identity of Hawk Moth, that was how he got into the lair. Poor Chat. Poor Adrien.

“I’m sorry Marinette.” Cleansed Chat added quietly. Her earrings were beeping the last warning as Ikari Grozen stuffed them into her mouth.

Chat Noir vaulted himself inside after them. He heard the conversation and he watched in awe as Ladybug’s suit dissolved in pink light and he was able to recognize his classmate. She looked at cleansed Chat and did not notice the original Chat beside her at first.

“Tell me how you got akumatized?” Marinette asked determinedly, but there were tears flowing down her face. She produced a macaron from her purse automatically. Tikki took it gratefully and noticed Chat Noir but did not say a thing.

“It was him, it was father, he did not want us together and he wanted our miraculous to bring mother back.” Cleansed Chat explained. Marinette had tears down her face but she never looked away from him. She needed to know.

“So he sent an akuma after you … that is why you said that our love destroyed the world, Adrien?” She whispered. Cleansed Chat was not surprised that she knew his identity. He nodded back to confirm and she closed her eyes just for a moment.

Chat Noir’s ring beeped a warning and that was the first time that cleansed Chat and Marinette noticed him.

“Claws in!” He whispered and Adrien stood before them.

“You didn’t have to destroy the whole mansion, you could have left the cheese, you know.” Plagg whined as soon as he appeared back from the ring. Adrien took a piece of cheese from his shirt and gave it to Plagg. But his eyes never left Marinette.

“I love you so much Marinette. But he was making me chose between my mother and him, between my family, and you … and then he sent a butterfly after me.” Chat Noir sniffled.

Marinette looked at Adrien, then at cleansed Chat and then back at Adrien.

“My Lady?” Adrien whispered.

She nodded.

“I’m ready.” Tikki chirped.

“Tikki, spots on!” Marinette whispered and transformed back to Ladybug.

“I destroyed the whole mansion, I need my time.” Plagg protested when Adrien looked at him.

“That is okay, can you use your cataclysm?” Ladybug asked cleansed Chat Noir. He confirmed.

“This is not an akuma, just a monster. Do your thing.” She told him and stepped towards Adrien. She blushed but she wrapped her arm around his waist and had her yoyo ready.

“Cataclysm” Cleansed Chat called and pressed to the floor. Ikari Grozen was disintegrating and Ladybug launched her yoyo to the side.

Outside, three women were losing to Hawk Moth and Copy Cat. But when Hawk Moth was ready to strike Sabine on the ground, Hannah jumped straight into his face screaming and poking his eyes.

He grabbed her with his hand and pulled her away easily. Sabine was back on her feet.

Now the women could not attack Hawk Moth because he was using Hannah as a shield, but they did fight Copy Cat. Cleansed Chat went straight at Hawk Moth and the Copy Cat. He wanted to attack, but seeing a civilian stopped him.

“Let her go.” Ladybug shouted from a distance. She was walking over with Adrien by her side.

Hawk Moth stared at his son. Adrien stared back with a blank expression.

“Let her go!” Ladybug repeated.

Hannah was squirming as she was trying to reach for the pin on the villain’s chest. She hit him between his legs a few times but it was futile due to the magic suit. Then she dropped her shoes and grabbed the pin with her toes. But it was pinned too hard and he hit her feet with his staff.

“Why don’t we trade?” Hawk Moth offered a useless civilian in his hand in exchange for his son.

Ladybug walked over beside Adrien until the last few metres. “Let her go!” She demanded and let Adrien do the last few steps.

Hannah was trying to reach for the pin again and Hawk Moth’s attention was on Ladybug the whole time. He saw that Chat Noir was busy with the Copy Cat, Anarka, Tomoe and Sabine eyed him carefully, ready to land a strike if given a clear shot.

“Hello father.” Adrien walked over, reached for the pin and pulled it away with all his might.

Hawk Moth was engulfed in violet flash and there stood Gabriel Agreste.

Hannah dropped to the ground.

Adrien took a few steps back clutching the pin to his chest.

“No” Gabriel screamed as he tried to reach Adrien.

Tomoe gasped. Anarka groaned. Sabine hissed. But all three stepped between the man and his son.

Troubletta dissolved into Lila. A violet butterfly fluttered from her hair tie. Ladybug caught and cleansed the butterfly.

Mayura heard Gabriel screamed and turned away only to see her boss lost his battle. Nora banged the frying pan on the villain’s head. Claudie held the arm with the fan in her protective space suit while her fingers were unable to get a grip on the peacock brooch.

Ladybug jumped over and wrapped her yoyo around the villain, immobilizing her. Adrien walked over and snatched the peacock miraculous. He watched as Mayura transformed back to Nathalie.

Adrien took a few steps back and stared at the woman. But he did not want to say one word.

Officer Roger was already coming over at the scene.

Temporary heroes started to come back to the park.

Ladybug threw her yoyo in the air and called for her magic to repair everything that was destroyed in the battle. She looked at Adrien. He knew that the mansion was restored now. All the troubles created by Troubletta were dissolved.

The heroes joined in for a fist bump. Ladybug called Adrien over.

“Hey, where’s Chat?” King Monkey asked.

“He had to detransform.” Ladybug smiled, but there was a blush on her face as she looked at Adrien.

“Multimouse is not here either.” Ryuko noticed.

“Um, her transformation wore off too.” Ladybug shrugged.

Adrien glanced back at her with a small smirk.

“Pound it!” They said in unison.

“Hey! We can do that too.” Anarka shouted and raised her fist. Hannah joined in eagerly, almost too short to reach. Sabine smiled and added her fist. Claudie added her fist in the space suit glove. Nora added her fist a bit too eagerly. Tomoe also made a fist to join.

“You can all go home now, I will pick up you miraculous later.” Ladybug told the temporary heroes. It was late, they were tired from the battle and they won, few were in a mood for several celebratory fists in the air and howls, but after a glare towards the nearest villain they all dispersed.

Queen Bee lingered a moment longer and stared at Gabriel before she huffed and turned away. She had a much better idea how to spend her last moments while she still had her miraculous and she was not going to waste that precious time on that villain.

Adrien held the pin and the brooch in his hand and offered it to Ladybug.

“Thank you, Adrien.” She blushed while she took the miraculous as their hands brushed, then she stored the jewels into her clutch bag.

Gabriel was resisting being held by Anarka and Sabine (who had surprisingly strong grip) but the two women relaxed a little when they noticed that everything that was needed to hold the man in place was the sight of a Japanese blind woman holding a sabre.

“I am disappointed in you Monsieur Agreste.” Tomoe Tsurugi spoke solemnly to Gabriel. The man first looked at her sternly, but then he bowed his head. He was caught. His miraculous was taken. Tomoe turned around and took a few steps towards Nathalie who was dragged closer (or maybe better yet carried by one arm) by Nora.

“I understand that Gabriel was your boss and you did what you did out of devotion, but it doesn’t justify what you have done.” Tomoe continued.

“You, mister, are busted!” Anarka shouted at Gabriel. “And we are free from your tyranny! Liberty! Brotherhood! Equality! Yeah! Freedom!” (And the reader can imagine her singing Freedom from George Michael just to annoy the designer, although something more hard core would be fitting her personality).

Officer Roger took Gabriel into the awaiting car.

“This one’s a bit limp now. She put up a good fight before, but we nailed her.” Nora pulled Nathalie towards the car and then pushed her straight into the hands of officer Raincomprix.

“Why don’t we go home, honey?” Tom asked Sabine gently. “Come with us Hannah.”

“I have to get home and check on my sisters.” Nora excused herself and marched away.

“I have to get out of this suit.” Claudie swayed away.

“I will take care of Adrien.” Ladybug talked quietly with officer Roger and motioned for him to go for Lila and her mother.

“Where do you want to go?” She asked the boy softly.

He blushed, smiled and looked up to the rooftop above the bakery. Ladybug’s eyes went wide, but she obliged. She wrapped her hand around his waist and launched her yoyo. He held onto her tightly. She released him on the rooftop terrace and unlocked the hatch door.

“I will return, I have to pick up something.” Ladybug smiled and launched her yoyo. She needed to fetch the miraculous, but she also needed a few minutes to clear her head and mind. And she needed an excuse for her absence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess it is simpler now.


	80. Milk and Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien gets a sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some fluff

Milk and Cookies

After she left Adrien on her rooftop, Ladybug set out to collect the miraculous from the temporary wielders. She first found Viperion and Ryuko in front of her home. They detransformed, smiled and returned their miraculous.

“Maybe we could meet up and celebrate?” Luka grinned.

“I think we will.” Ladybug replied with a mysterious smile. She quickly stopped by Max and Kim.

Nino and Alya were in front of her building.

“Do you need a lift up?” Ladybug offered.

“No, I was kidnapped by Troubledoll, remember?” Alya winked.

“And I saved her.” Nino smirked.

“In your pyjama? “ Ladybug smirked and launched her yoyo towards Le Grand Paris.

Chloe was waiting, detransformed and talking to Pollen over a cup of honey.

“So I guess I don’t get to see Pollen again.” Chloe sighed.

“Miraculous is not to be used for selfish reasons, Chloe.” Ladybug warned.

“But I missed Pollen so much! And I fought so hard!” Chloe protested.

“No promises, Chloe, but I’ll see. Okay?” Ladybug replied calmly.

Ladybug was in a hurry to get back home, not only to minimize the amount of time she had to invent an excuse for her absence but also because she left someone on her rooftop terrace.

Not a minute later Ladybug left him on the rooftop terrace, Adrien saw Hannah enter the room through the hatch door. Then he remembered how the girls were discussing a sleepover. He knocked on the rooftop window and she climbed up and opened it.

“Can I come in?” Adrien asked sheepishly.

“How did you get up there?” Hannah asked with her eyes wide.

“Ladybug brought me here.” He smiled.

“Oh, come inside then.” She stood to the side.

“Did you find Marinette?” Sabine called from the hatch door.

“No” Hannah replied. “But I found Adrien.”

“Ladybug left me up here. I wanted to go somewhere safe.” The boy spoke quietly.

“Oh, boy, come downstairs, do you want anything to eat or drink maybe? Have you had your dinner?” Sabine fussed and made the boy sit at their kitchen table. Of course she was keeping the boy, she just saw his father defeated and the boy revealed him to be a villain.

“Adrien?” Tom was surprised to find the boy at the kitchen table when he arrived from the bathroom. He walked over quickly and gave the boy a crushing hug.

“Ladybug brought him here, dear, he cant go back to that mansion. I was thinking of asking him to stay with us for the night.” Sabine was assembling plates and food on the table although it was after midnight. Adrien and Hannah did not complain.

“Of course.” Hannah smiled. “Marinette and me will sleep on the bed. You take the chaise.” She was certain Marinette was not going to complain about that.

Adrien blushed.

“He shouldn’t be alone now.” Hannah continued. “He has no brother or sister and … “ She trailed off, she had no clue how the boy lived, but she learned to recognize when someone was scared.

“That is … “ Tom rubbed the back of his neck.

“An excellent idea.” Sabine smiled. Then she elaborated in rather coded language that Adrien clearly understood because he blushed while Hannah did not as she paid more attention to food, that it was okay because the boy needed company and it was harmless because Hannah was there.

Marinette burst through the door only minutes later.

“Hello dear, Ladybug left Adrien on our rooftop. We don’t think it is wise to just send him back home. We thought he might stay here for a sleepover.” Sabine smiled.

“We can share the bed and he can take the chaise.” Hannah smiled.

Tom just nodded when Sabine nudged him with her elbow.

Marinette was completely red in her face. They all arranged for her crush to have a sleepover in her room? Okay, he was Chat Noir and now he knew she was Ladybug and they just defeated Hawk Moth (who was his father, by the way) and Mayura (his assistant) and she was freaking out.

And it was her who left him on her own rooftop. Why was she surprised?

Adrien was looking at her hopefully. He looked at her necklace, he looked at her ears.

“Hannah said it was okay with her, but I wanted to make sure it was okay with you.” The boy smiled.

“Okay.” She blushed. “But I have to … go to my room now to … tidy up?”

Sabine wanted to say that Adrien was already up there and there was no need but the girl ran away.

One minute later, she was back. Adrien noticed there was no necklace. So she put away the miraculous she picked up from the other heroes.

“We were having some milk and cookies, care to join us dear?” Sabine invited.

They were eating in silence unsure what to talk about.

Hannah knew better than to ask anything. Asking meant interrogating. And only criminals were interrogated. Adrien was not a criminal. His father was. But the boy might felt interrogated and in consequence, blamed for his father’s actions, if they asked him questions.

Marinette wanted to ask, she knew he was in his father’s lair, he told her so as Chat Noir, but she did not know the details. It was hard to form any sort of a question or even a comment without revealing too much and a simple ‘are you okay’ was stupid, she knew he wasn’t.

“Son, if you want to talk about it, please do.” Tom smiled encouragingly.

It took a few more moments before Adrien began to speak about how his father took him to his lair in the basement and how he saw the body of his mother and how his father wanted to akumatize him into Catalyst.

Tome and Sabine released many ‘oh you poor boy’ comments. Marinette let her tears flow silently. Some time during the speech she took Adrien’s hand in hers under the table. She held him tightly each time he moved to the next event and did not let him go.

“How did you escape?” Sabine asked. Hannah smiled expectatnly, she was always focused on that, a way out, because there was a way out, he escaped, he was there, he was safe and she wanted to know how he did it.

“I … um … “ Adrien glanced towards Marinette. “Chat Nor used cataclysm on the mansion.” He offered as a reply, it wasn’t a lie and it was an explanation.

“The whole building?” Hannah’s eyes were wide. She imagined how would she feel if she was trapped in a basement beside a body of her mother and the building collapsed around her. She shuddered.

“yeah” Adrien nodded. And it felt good to destroy it. It felt so good. Even the cheese cabinet, although Plagg disagreed with destroying that object. He did not even bother to hide a small smile. I

“How did Chat know? He heard you call for help from the lair?” Hannah asked more. Adrien did not look defensive, just confused and lost in his thoughts. Maybe it was safe to ask that.

“He … um … maybe?” Adrien was not sure how to get out from this one without revealing his identity. He did not want to lie. Marinette squeezed his hand.

“Chat Noir has enhanced hearing and night vision. Maybe he saw when Hawk Moth and Mayura left the lair. Maybe he heard Adrien. Maybe it was something else.” Marinette smiled.

Adrien released a breath and smiled too.

Hannah wanted to ask something else but Sabine put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“It is getting really late. Do you think you would be able to sleep?” Sabine asked Adrien.

The boy shrugged and then nodded.

“I’ll try.” He smiled.

“Do you need a pyjama?” Sabine offered. It was not as if she had anything his size but she was willing. Tom gave her a look. “Silly me, of course you need one.”

“Actually, Marinette has one in her trunk.” Hannah noted and yawned. She started to doze off. And of course she remembered a solution, just did not think that one through. Marinette frowned. She was not ready to admit to that part just yet. But if she just ran upstairs and got the right package out … So she did. But Adrien followed her to her room and saw the trunk and the packages.

Hannah left to change in her pyjama and crawled into bed. Tom and Sabine barely reached their bed before they fell asleep. Marinette and Adrien were in her room. She took one package from her trunk. Labelled Adrien. It was a t-shirt. Then another. Then another.

“Marinette.” Adrien whispered as he came closer. Hannah was probably still awake. “What are these?” He saw that most if not all packages were labelled with his name.

“I’m sorry, I do have a pyjama for you, but this day was so crazy and I just can’t remember which package it was an I mixed them all up when I was searching for … “ She did not finish because Adrien put a hand over her mouth and pointed with his finger towards the miracle box and winked.

She quickly returned the lid over the gift box in which it was hidden.

“Why don’t I just put on this t-shirt and these shorts that you did find?” He smiled.

She nodded.

“Did you really make all these things for me?” he asked next while he helped her put other packages back in the trunk.

She nodded.

She looked terrified.

He smiled.

Any other day, or from anyone else, it might have freaked him out, it would have been too much, but that day he lost both mother and father (and Nathalie), and this was Marinette and Ladybug and he really really needed to see that someone cared for him that much.

“Thank you.” He wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back.

They stayed like that for several minutes and then turned and sat on the floor. Adrien held her hand. She was trying to calm down. He accepted her, the trunk, the gifts, her parents, but he was also Chat Noir, and he knew she was Ladybug and they just won and the villain was his father and …

“I was so blind.” He whispered. “I was so oblivious.”

She wasn’t sure about what.

“About my father and Nathalie.” He frowned. “About you.” He turned towards her and smiled adoringly. “Especially about you.”

She blushed and smiled. This was all a dream. This must have been a dream. Because there was no way that they had won over Hawk Moth and Mayura, and that her crush was having a sleepover in her room, and that he was looking at her that way, and he was Chat Noir.

Adrien smiled, he held her hand and brushed her skin with his thumb, this was Marinette and Ladybug and she loved him, she loved him so much that she was making him gifts, with her own two hands, and she was looking at him like he was her everything.

They were staring at each other for a long time and they would have continued to do so probably until the morning, but …

“Do you have any Camembert?” Plagg asked.

“Be quiet, Hannah is sleeping on the loft bed.” Tikki pulled him away.

“She is the guardian now, she should be able to feed me. Master always had some Camembert for me.” Plagg whined.

“Just be quiet.” Tikki put her tiny paw over Plagg’s mouth, not that it helped much.

“Let’s go downstairs, there should be some cheese in the fridge.” Marinette got on her feet. She descended the stairs and switched on the light in the kitchen. The cookies were left on the table so Tikki was fine, and after a brief search thorough the fridge, Marinette did find Camembert.

Adrien first changed into the t-shirt and shorts he got and then followed downstairs in the kitchen.

“Look, it fits me perfectly.” He grinned and posed as if he was in a photo shoot.

Marinette blushed.

Adrien laughed.

She put a finger over her mouth to keep him quiet.

“You shouldn’t be so shy about this.” He whispered to her ear and she was even redder in the face. “You need someone to model your designs and I will obviously have to change the brand I work for.” He winked.

It was such a Chat Noir thing to do. He was able to joke about his misery. Her eyes bulged out and then she had to cover her mouth with both hands to prevent herself from laughing too loudly. Adrien did the same. They laughed until they could laugh no more.

Then they took more milk and sat beside the plate of cookies. Marinette opened a box that had several left over pastries and they started to talk quietly, very quietly, because Tikki made sure nobody else was able to hear them.

They talked about past battles, how they met, about the Book of Lore and Master Fu, about all sorts of mishaps and how many times they almost detransformed or transformed in front of each other.

But then they started to list the most stupid excuses they had for disappearing from their friends and family (and sometimes each other) during akuma battles.

At some point they picked up the kwami (who fell asleep, Plagg on the empty part of the table, Tikki laid her head on a half eaten cookie) and went over to sit on the sofa in the living room. They continued to talk quietly, about their class and the teachers and different events they went through.

When the first rays of sun reached through the windows and Sabine went to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water, she was surprised to find two empty glasses, crumbs and a half eaten cookie on top of the table.

“I thought we cleaned this up last night.” She frowned. But while she was collecting the dishes and putting them in the sink she noticed a mop of blonde hair on the sofa in the living room. The hair was shining in the early morning sun.

She carefully walked over and saw two sleeping teenagers huddled together. She dug out a blanket from somewhere and put it over them. She was glad that both of them were finally able to fetch some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now wash your teeth


	81. Different Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anarka and Tomoe talk after the battle.  
> Waking up in the morning above the bakery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned to publish the last two chapters almost a week ago ... explaining why would take too much time.  
> Enjoy.

Different Parents

After the battle, Tomoe Tsurugi stood tall with the sword in her hand. Her face was expressionless and her eyes hidden by the dark glasses.

Anarka Cuffaine stood opposite to her with her sabre held by both her hands. She observed the other woman carefully. Then she took the sabre in her right hand and put her hands on her hips. She looked at the sword and the posture one more time.

“Do you, by any chance have a daughter named Kagami?” Anarka asked.

Tomoe returned one firm nod.

“And do you live on a boat named Liberty and have a son named Luka?” Tomoe asked firmly.

“Of course.” Anarka smiled. “I met your daughter. Very nice girl. Takes after you I’d say.” Anarka looked at the sword in Tomoe’s hand.

“I met your son.” Tomoe stated simply. “He plays guitar well.”

“Tell you what, this occasion deserves to be celebrated, why don’t you and your daughter come over tomorrow afternoon, when we all get a good night sleep after this, and then we can all celebrate together.” Anarka grinned.

“Your invitation is much appreciated.” Tomoe replied flatly. Anarka made a face, with that tone she expected a refusal. “My daughter and me will join you for the festivities.”

“That is great. The boat is called Liberty for a reason.” Anarka exclaimed. “The kids can come over and play their instruments and we can enjoy some time together.”

Tomoe did not look thrilled. She did not look annoyed either. There was no expression on her face.

A red driverless car stopped on the edge of the park.

“My car is here.” Tomoe spoke flatly. “Why don’t you come over. I can give you a lift?”

Tomoe attempted to smile but it looked really awkward.

“Of course. I have to see that thing of yours. You have no driver? That’s great. I would feel awkward having servants and personal assistants. That’s like having slaves. Except you pay them. I prefer my freedom. And theirs.” The woman rambled as she entered the car.

“I find interactions with the driverless car far less demanding than interactions with a driver.” Tomoe concluded while she sat in the car after her guest.

The car took off, but the conversation did not. At least, not at first.

“I heard from my son that your daughter is an excellent fencer.” Anarka tried as a conversation starter.

“She should be. Nothing less is expected of her. That is a family tradition.” Tomoe spoke calmly.

“You sure are traditional.” Anarka noted as she studied the interior of the driverless car.

“I heard from my daughter that your son is an excellent musician.” Tomoe decided to return the line. “And that it runs in the family.”

“Yeah, I used to play the guitar for Jagged. I guess an apple doesn’t fall far from a tree.” Anarka shrugged. She had no idea if that was sufficient to call it a tradition. “Love for music does run in the family.”

“I heard him play too.” Tomoe admitted. “A melody he invented.”

“He keeps doing that. He has a melody for everyone. Particularly girls he likes.” Anarka snickered.

Tomoe raised her eyebrows at that.

“Your fencing technique is very interesting.” Tomoe noted. “How have you decided for that particular approach?”

“Oh, it just comes from the heart, I guess.” Anarka shrugged. Nobody ever praised her fencing technique. She knew nothing of fencing techniques. “But you, on the other hand, have a technique like a samurai. How do you do that?”

“I practised since I could walk.” Tomoe replied. “That is what we do.”

Anarka nodded, then hummed her appreciation for the answer.

“Your weapon, what is it?” Tomoe inquired.

“Just an old sabre I bought on a flea market years ago. I thought it would look nice on my boat.” Anarka replied.

“Can I see it?” Tomoe extended her arm and opened her palm. “Please?”

“Of course.” Anarka carefully placed the handle of the sabre in the other woman’s hand.

Tomoe expertly felt how it felt in her hand, then brushed her hand along the blade and made a few small circles in the air, as much as the tight space in the car allowed.

“I must admit I have never used a blade like this.” Tomoe concluded and returned the sabre.

“What about your sword?” Anarka asked for the sake of conversation as much as of her own curiosity. She was not a big fan of weapons as such, but the sword beside Tomoe looked as if it could tell a story.

And Tomoe told a story, about her family, about centuries it was passed from one generation to the next, the battles it won (because it never lost), the meaning of the engravings, how it was made, how it was maintained and how it was kept.

Adrien stirred. He heard noises. Someone was talking. Someone else was laughing. He concentrated and recognized words and finally voices, those were Tom, Sabine and Hannah. He felt someone was breathing beside him. It had to be Marinette, his lady. He smiled and held her close.

Marinette woke up to the arms that tightened around her. Yes, that was Adrien beside her, on her sofa, in her living room, under a blanket, while her parents talked to Hannah in the kitchen. Suddenly her face went completely red. Did they see them together?

The memories, even the recently acquired ones, can be tricky things, they can hide and let you lull and enjoy the moment, especially just after waking up. Adrien remembered that Marinette was Ladybug first, the other memories haunted him slightly later.

His father was Hawk Moth, his mother was … probably dead (which was not news but still), and the boy had no home to return to. But he was holding Marinette, who was also his lady, and knew her identity and enjoyed the feeling of living a home life, although it wasn’t his own home.

She stirred in his arms and all negative thoughts got pushed aside by a pair of blue eyes that fluttered open. If Chat Noir was living for the moment, then Adrien wanted to stay in this moment forever, he did not need more. The love he felt bubbled inside of him, it was Marinette, his sweet and loving classmate and not another civilian girl that he just started to meet without the mask.

She opened her eyes to get up and pretend that his night of talking and cuddling did not happen (for her parents, to avoid being awkward), but the first thing she saw were his warm green eyes and his face that looked at her so lovingly, so adoringly, she wanted him to care for her but this was so much more than she ever dreamed about.

It felt so good to be held by him, she forgot that there were other people in the kitchen. Right then and there there were only two people in the whole world, and it was just the two of them. She saw him happy and loving and it filled her with warmth.

They were so close that leaning in for a kiss was almost an accident. Yeah, they breaths probably sucked and they could be seen, but none of that mattered, their lips connected and each of them felt whole as if they found a piece of them that was missing.

Heavy footsteps were approaching.

“Just tell them that the food is on the table and let them be, Tom.” Sabine spoke from the kitchen.

Adrien grabbed the blanket and pulled it over their heads. They both laughed softly and kissed once more hidden below the fluffy covers.

“Ahem, the breakfast is on the table and we learned that you all wanted to go to the Liberty, so if you’d like to join … “ Tom fidgeted and then decidedly turned around to leave. As a father, he was not thrilled that his little girl spent the night with a boy, but she liked that boy so much and the ppor boy needed company and a family.

They might have stayed there kissing for a long time, but mind is a funny thing. Tom mentioned food and breakfast and although they did not consciously process the information completely, their stomachs growled, first Adrien, they laughed softly, then hers, and then he flipped the blanket and they got up.

Two blushing teens were holding hands when they reached the breakfast table.

“Oh, look at them so shy and sweet.” Sabine cooed.

“It is a good thing I made my special muffins for our two little muffins then.” Tom smiled as he put a set of freshly baked heart shaped muffins on the table. It was a set of moulds they only used when catering a wedding or engagement parties as well as Valentine’s.

The memory of Weredad was something that the two of them were never going to forget and they both paled and froze in spot. It was far more efficient wake up call than any coffee. Sabine noticed the reaction of her daughter (and never bothered to explain to herself why Adrien reacted the same way).

“Aren’t you a little overly excited about today, Tom?” Sabine smiled. “Besides, I think we all earned some treats today, didn’t we Hannah?”

The memories of Weredad had a completely different meaning now when the discoveries from last night were put into perspective. Marinette laughed softly, because her admission of love was not just a little white lie to distract Chat from discovering her identity, it was true, and her first love confession to the boy (unsigned stuff be ignored).

He shook his head at her soft laugh and smiled at her. It hurt him so much to say no to her that day, because he did like her, he just loved Ladybug more, just more, he was certain he loved Marinette then already (even without knowing she was Ladybug), but he did not have a clue.

They sat down and started to fill their plates under watchful eyes of Tom Dupain while Hannah and Sabine kept themselves busy in the kitchen. Adrien’s stomach growled again at the sight and the smell of breakfast and sweets and the boy started to eat. He was used to being watched and he discovered he did not mind being watched by Tom.

“So, um, Adrien, have you decided what are you going to do with your life?” Tom blurted out.

Marinette stiffened. ‘Because being a son of a supervillain is hardly a life career choice’ somehow her mind added.

“Don’t push him dear, the boy hardly knows what his options are.” Sabine cut in from the kitchen. “Listen, we talked with Hannah, she sort of, has an experience … “ The woman audibly swallowed and a few tears escaped her eyes, they talked to the girl over breakfast and listening to someone so young telling stories of her life and sounding so old, was really hard on the woman.

“We agreed that you can stay here, son, with us, for some sort of extended sleepover … “ Tom was rather uncertain about this, his daughter was far too young to have a boy she liked, no, she loved, and he obviously felt the same way about her, Tom smiled, to practically move in.

“Until you find more permanent solution.” Sabine smiled. Tom scratched the back of his neck. “Hannah made us realize that when kids go through something, like you did, they tend to grow up overnight, but we’d like you to have your childhood back.”

Marinette squeezed Adrien’s hand and he squeezed back. What did it mean to have his childhood back? When did he have that exactly? What was it for him? Playing dress up with Chloe? Playing dress up for a photo shoot with his mother? Without her?

“I want to stay in Paris.” Adrien spoke. “And continue to go to our school.” Then he sighed. “And I definitely do not want to live in that mansion. It is creeping me out, the fact that I slept there just a floor above … “ He shuddered.

“This is Paris.” Hannah smiled. “There are catacombs and old cemeteries.” She counted on her fingers. “People build things above. They built metro underneath.” She was trying to remember some other creepy fact or just how to say it properly.

Marinette stared at Hannah for a moment. She never thought about it like that. Tom laughed nervously. Sabine shook her head. Adrien nodded quietly, he knew the girl was right, but that was his own mother down there. He knew the authorities got her body out during the night.

“We saw the news at one point. Alya has been texting us. They took her out. She is … “Marinette squeezed Adrien’s hand.

“She wielded butterfly miraculous, that is why she got that way. Father said modern medicine would proclaim her dead so he kept her in that state. He told me … That’s what he told me.” Adrien looked at his hands folded on the table. “She wasn’t Mayura though.”

“Well, you can stay with us for as long as you want.” Sabine smiled.

Adrien smirked, if he was asked to decide about that, that would have been a long time.

“Let’s not worry about that today.” Hannah piped in in a tone that was in a complete contrast to the way the two teens felt as well as Sabine’s forced calmness. “Today we eat, meet friends and celebrate.” She smiled at everyone present and it was contagious.

The two teens had breakfast, the other three prepared and packed some pastries and cookies for the kids to take with them to the Liberty, while everyone bothered to correct Hannah for whatever she pronounced wrong until the girl groaned and stomped away to the bathroom and earned small laughs from the rest of the group.

“Do you want us to go to the mansion and fetch something for you? Or would you prefer to do it yourself?” Tom asked quietly.

“Just some school stuff, but my bodyguard could just deliver that in the morning. I guess.” Adrien had no idea. “I don’t want any clothes that has Gabriel label on it.” He smirked. It was the company policy for him to wear that and he had no idea how much he hated it until now.

“Actually,” Adrien continued to talk and turned towards Marinette. “I think I’m switching designers.” She let out a small squeal and covered her blushing face with her hands. “And if I remember correctly there are a few I could try out today?” He raised his eyebrows and smirked.

Marinette stared at the boy between her fingers, there was Chat Noir sitting beside her, just without a mask. Yes, he wanted everything she made for him, he was needy and greedy and wanted it all, the whole trunk, and her designs he sported the day Juleka got akumatized and the designer on the side.

“Hannah has to go home first, why don’t you two head out early, I’ll pack you a few batches we did this morning.” Sabine suggested. “Have a nice walk by the Seine, enjoy some sun and the view or go to your friends boat early, we’ll have a small party with the adults later.”

With those words, there was nothing much to do but quickly change and get out in the street as soon as possible. Adrien took Marinette’s hand in his own and they started to walk in silence. Both were slightly wary of the passers by, should anyone recognize him, but save a few passing glimpses of recognition, the two were able to walk in peace, at least for some time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And one more to go.


	82. Same Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party at the boat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kids with a touch of Anarka and Tomoe.

Same Kids

Marinette experienced small victories on a daily basis, her victory dance after a video game won, her satisfied smile after she confronted Chloe or Adrien returned to school. Adrien had small victories of his own, like winning over to go to school at all.

But how do you celebrate winning over Hawk Moth? The long lasting threat that abused the negative feelings of Parisians was gone. The city was free to feel angry or desperate without anyone being turned into a monster and consequently, there was absence of bad feelings in the streets.

More specifically, how do you celebrate when you’re secretly a superhero who won all those battles and nobody is supposed to know your identity? A fist bump was sufficient for each small battle, but now they won a war.

“We did it my lady.” He whispered once they wee on the embankments of the Seine and he was certain nobody would overhear.

“But you lost your family in the process.” Marinette sighed. She felt guilty for winning because she deprived him of his father, weather or not having him in the boys life was beneficial for the boy or not.

“I lost my mother long ago, and my father made himself absent my whole life.” Adrien sighed. “And I have you now.” He smiled full of adoration and trust. Apparently, he also had her parents to rely on.

Marinette had to concentrate on her legs not to lose her balance, or just melt on the ground. She beamed back, blushed at his words and squeaked. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles. And that reminded her just how many times Chat Noir did that to Ladybug and she brushed him off.

They talked again, about times that have past and then, for some reason, they became silent, because their thoughts wandered off into a rather fuzzy subject about their plans and wishes for the future. Marinette braced herself.

“Um, I had a plan, for us.” She looked at her shoes. “House, three kids and a hamster.” She muttered. “I … might have … picked up the names too.”

“You do the planning Ma Lady, I never had to do that, planning was always done for me, all I had to do was act accordingly.” Adrien shrugged. He liked her plan. “Even when I knew what I wanted, I was often not allowed to do it. So I don’t know what to do, as long as it is with you.”

“Oh no you don’t! Don’t push the responsibility to me. You get to make a plan for yourself.” She poked her index finger into his chest.

“Good.” He smirked. “So a house, three kids and a hamster?” The crooked grin on his face was totally Chat Noir.

Marinette groaned and clenched her fists.

They were walking on the embankment in front of Liberty. Their friends were mostly already there on the boat. They saw Kagami’s car approach the spot from the other side and they both lit up. Not that anyone but the both of them new, but this was going to be a proper her party.

Kagami got out of the car and smiled slightly awkwardly. Well, her smiles used to be far more rare and even more awkward. Then she stood to the side and a white stick got out of the car, followed by Tomoe Tsurugi.

Everyone fell silent while the woman approached the board, led by nothing but her stick, she motioned to her own daughter to stay to the side, determined to do it on her own. She stepped on the board with one foot, then the other, after a few steps she reached the other end of the board and descended safely onto the deck.

There were celebratory cheers and whistles, Tomoe’s face remained calm and expressionless, there were shouts of greeting from the kids, Kagami walked over the board followed by Marinette and Adrien, slightly bewildered by the sight.

“Welcome to Liberty, my fellow!” Anarka shouted with her arms wide. Tomoe’s lips twitched and she turned her face towards the voice and she did her firm nod in greeting.

“Hello, my friend.” Tomoe replied stiffly.

Anarka wrapped her arms around Tomoe while the other woman stood stiff and awkward, unable to return the hug because her arms were held to her body by Anarka hugging her anyway.

“What’s going on?” Marinette whispered to Kagami.

“My mother decided to try and make friends. She and Anarka talked last night and found that they have more similarities than differences.” Kagami spoke quietly.

Marinette smiled widely.

Anarka decidedly took Tomoe for a tour around the boat, they both moved awkwardly around all the items discarded around the deck and the host, for the first time, concluded that she just might put a few things out of the way to make it easier for her new friend to move around the boat.

“Now I’ve seen everything.” Luka arrived and put one arm around Kagami’s shoulders and another around Marinette’s. “Your mother told me she wanted to meet my mum, but this … “

“Actually, I have some bad news.” Kagami straightened and faced Adrien, but Luka did not remove his arm, just listened what was going to happen.

“My mother thinks your father has put your family name to shame. I am still arguing that you are worthy of acquaintance. Please be patient.” Kagami spoke solemnly.

Adrien deflated. He should have expected that, really, from fame to shame in just one night, and he was one of the Parisian superheroes that brought his father down.

“That’s unfair, it was him who notified the superheroes about Hawk Moth’s identity.” Marinette argued. “He was taken to the lair and locked down there, beside the body of his mother.”

“You’re our hero.” Luka let got of the girls and pulled Adrien into a firm hug.

“That’s bad, man.” Luka muttered. “I mean, I wanted to ask you how you’re holding out, but the show Anarka and Tomoe did distracted me.”

“I’m good, slept at Marinette’s last night.” He smiled, his cheeks pink.

Kagami turned towards Marinette who was completely red in the face.

Luka chuckled but did not let go of the other boy.

“I … um … we … “ Marinette mumbled and covered her cheeks with her hands.

“They fed me and kept me company. I’m as good as it gets, I guess.” Adrien explained. Luka finally let go of the boy, but he did keep one arm over his shoulders. Adrien took a step back and rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes flicked between Kagami, Luka and Marinette.

“Yes … um … you see … “ Marinette continued.

“Ladybug took me there and Marinette got me some clothes without Gabriel label on it and she talked with me all night and … “ Adrien was getting more colour in his face. He looked at Marinette pleading. Then he reached for one of her hands and took it from her face and held her.

“Her parents invited me to stay for a while until I … know what to do.” And that might be a rather long time he left unsaid.

“Good.” Kagami spoke first.

“Whatever makes you feel better.” Luka concluded and squeezed the other boy’s shoulder.

“Hey Adrien, I’m so sorry about your dad, your mum … Nathalie?” Rose piped in and hugged the boy around his waist. Juleka muttered something and joined in. Soon there was a group hug for Adrien while everyone expressed their support.

“I always said your father sucked, dude.” Nino decided to be the last so he could stay by the side of his best bro. “Heard from Alya you spend the night at Marinette’s dude.” He offered his fist for a fist bump. Adrien searched for his girlfriend with his eyes.

Alya practically pounced on Marinette with questions about Adrien and how they spend the night (they did exchange a few messages after all), but Kagami glared at the aspiring journalist.

“Hello.” A quiet voice greeted. Hannah had made it to the party. She carried several boxes with food and a small package and searched for Adrien and Marinette.

“Hi Hannah!” Marinette exclaimed and stepped in to help. “Let me help you with that.” She grabbed the boxes.

“Oh wait.” Hannah grabbed a parcel that was on the top. “Adrien’s bodyguard sent a few things. This is something he had given me to bring here, the rest is at the bakery. Tom put the cheese in the fridge.”

Adrien felt appreciative scratched in his shirt.

“What’s this?” Nino asked and peeked in the parcel.

“Oh, just a few things, some DVDs for Luka and … “ He extracted a few sheets of paper. “A melody I was working on.”

“Ah yes, I have a message for Anarka, the adults have a small celebration in the park, she’s invited and I don’t know how to reach Kagami’s mother.” Hannah looked around.

“My mother is here, I will let them know.” Kagami noted and walked away. Luka went after her, to put away the music and concert DVDs he got.

“So” Alya put her hand over Marinette’s shoulder. “What happened last night? Girl?”

Marinette did not have Kagami to stare at Alya. She blushed and looked at Adrien, she connected her index fingers.

“Ladybug brought him.” Hannah answered. “We had a sleepover. They fell asleep on the sofa in the living room.”

Marinette beamed and nodded. Yes, that was exactly what happened, no need to go into more details, right? It was the perfect answer, it was not even a lie. Why couldn’t she come up with an answer.

“So you and Adrien slept together, mhm?” Alya practically sang. Marinette groaned. “Details, girl, details.” Of course, that was the reason, Alya was never satisfied with simple and straightforward answers, she needed elaborate stories.

“We um … had late dinner?” Marinette frowned. “Yes we did, we ate and … talked? Hannah talked, my mum and dad talked ...”

“You and Adrien talked … “ Alya rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Alya, he needed someone to talk to!” Marinette clenched her fists and confronted her friend.

“Yes, but what did you talk about? What did you do?” Alya just had to know each detail.

“Alya!” Hannah shouted and crossed her arms.

Alya stared at the tiny girl. The rest of the kids went silent.

Hannah knew better than to hold an examination of Adrien, and in extension, Marinette. Whatever the boy confided in her about his experiences, whatever he told them all during dinner and breakfast, was his own to share. (She had no idea about the relationship status and she did not consider that important.)

“This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” Annoyed voice came from the river bank. Chloe was walking over the board. “We could have had the party at Le Grand Paris, but no … “ She stopped talking while she stepped down to the deck. “Well, I’m here, let’s get this party started!”

“Chloe!” Hannah ran over and greeted the girl eagerly. The rest of the group greeted the heiress with less enthusiasm.

“Adriekins!” Chloe walked over to Adrien. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“I can’t wear anything with Gabriel logo on it, I just can’t, Chloe.” The boy gave a tired smile.

“Well, I guess this suits the location.” Chloe huffed. “You have to come over. I know it is nice to have a whole mansion for yourself, but … “

“I did not return to the mansion, Chloe.” Adrien cut her off.

“Ladybug brought him to Marinette’s.” Hannah beamed.

“What?” Chloe shrieked. “Why?” She sounded so disappointed. Ladybug should have brought the boy to her, to Le Grand Paris, what was Ladybug thinking? Adrien belonged to such places.

“Because I asked her to.” Adrien replied to the last question.

Girls squealed and celebrated, Alix pumped her fist in the air.

“Dude.” Nino grinned. “Finally.”

Alya was bouncing on her feet.

“So, I have some news.” Chloe announced. Perhaps she just wanted to change the subject or just to feel important again. “We are all going to give statements about all little white lies Lila produced. Sabrina’s dad is leading the investigation.”

“But that’s like … anything she ever said.” Alya frowned.

“And that girl talked a lot.” Kim added.

“That is going to take forever.” Alix complained.

“Actually, according to my computations, it should take each of us about a … week?” Max frowned.

“And since the threat of her becoming an akuma has been removed.” Chloe continued. “There is no reason to remove her from Paris during the investigation..” She huffed. “Now that is all I wanted to say and we wasted enough time on that excuse for a human being.”

“What about Hawk Moth?” Kim grinned. Adrien winced. Marinette took his hand.

“Dude.” Nino muttered a warning to Kim but it was too late.

Chloe made a disgusted face.

“Silent and all lawyered up.” Sabrina replied. “The same lawyers are representing Nathalie so she is quiet for now, but papa thinks that’s an order from her boss so he is working on that.”

“My mother is disgusted with the way he designed those akuma costumes.” Chloe huffed. “We spent the whole morning discussing that. And his costume is hideous. What about his hair? He just chose to hide it under a hood. I mean, who does that? That’s like permanent bad hair day.”

Several people snickered at her antics.

But more wanted to change the subject, this was supposed to be a party, after all.

“Hey, Chloe, have you ever heard Kitty Section in concert?” Hannah beamed.

Chloe returned an incredulous look, she would never expose herself to that, but those were her classmates, and they were sort of famous, even XY stole the melody from them, then she huffed and looked away.

“we did all get here for a party?” Hannah continued.

The chorus of voices agreed.

“So, are we going to play or what?” Ivan inquired from his place at the drums where he returned after the group Adrien hug.

“Yeah, let’s play.” Luka invited the rest of the band while he took his guitar.

“This is so nice, we are having a party to celebrate. I just hope the heroes of Paris also have a party as nice as this one.” Rose piped in into the microphone.

“Oh, I’m sure the heroes are having a party too.” Luka smirked and looked at Kagami.

Alya nudged Nino with her elbow, he adjusted his cap and then nudged her back. They both shared a stifled laugh.

Max adjusted his glasses, crossed his arms and looked smug.

Kim was howling and waving his fist.

“Of course they are having a party.” Chloe huffed, but she had a knowing smirk on her face after that.

Adrien squeezed Marinette’s hand, they looked at each other and smiled and then he walked away and stood behind the keyboard on the stage.

“Okay, so this one’s for the heroes!” Rose exclaimed and the band started to play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, that's it.  
> It was hard not to get carried away from the main story (that was rather simple), but it was really fun to write the parts where Lila fails (yeah, I'm bad). I wish it happened that often in the real life ...   
> The main challenge was the rating I decided and wanted to keep. That meant ditching any PTSD bonding between the heroes and Hannah.  
> The fic turned out far more happy and fluffy than the main story line outlined in the beginning (and I'm not sorry). Mostly because Hannah is not too stressed over her citizenship, she is aware of the problem, but 'it's paperwork', she's been worse, and the only real threat is for her to be forced to return where she came from.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
